Page 1596 - Week 06 - Thursday, 3 May 1990
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play a numbers game is not satisfactory at all, and I would argue very strongly for an overall look at the school system to make sure it is better.
I would like to take high schools as a special example. This is the area on which I have been concentrating over the last three months. Although I have visited colleges and preschools - institutions at both ends of the scale - and primary schools, it has been high schools in which I have been particularly interested. Why? Because as our college system has done so well and has a national reputation, so there have been some spin-off problems relating to high schools. The Department of Education is especially turning its attention to that, as indeed is the Alliance Government. Certainly I am. Looking at schools such as Holder, Lyneham, Campbell and Telopea, I am well aware of the tremendous merits of them. We have to build on the merits of those schools.
Mr Wood raised a lot of questions, many of which I recognise as the kinds of rumours that are going around the system. I will conclude on this note. One of the most extraordinary, extravagant rumours is that the Alliance Government is about to close 51 preschools. I do not know where that rumour came from. It is absolutely extraordinary.
Mr Wood: I did not raise it.
DR KINLOCH: No, Bill, I know you did not. We first heard the rumour last week, and both Mr Humphries and I have denied it. Similarly, Mr Wood raised eight or nine other matters. I do not propose to go through them all now. Rumours of them have already been drawn to my attention. I want to be just as alert about those as Mr Wood. I want to be sure that we do not increase class sizes; that class sizes are maintained at a proper level. I want to be sure that special education is maintained, as is environmental education, which is already in our policy. I hope we can deal with those at another time.
I very much welcome the ministerial statement, the debate in which Mr Wood has already begun to participate and the chance to defend - indeed, not only defend but also promote - the process which we are about to engage in in bringing our schools up to better, more efficient levels than at present.
Sitting suspended from 12.20 to 2.30 pm
QUESTIONS WITHOUT NOTICE
ACT Court System
MS FOLLETT: My question, which is directed to the Chief Minister, concerns recent announcements about court
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