Page 1802 - Week 07 - Wednesday, 30 May 1990
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Let us look at the facts in this matter. Mr Wood asked for some facts; I will give him some. In our education system in the ACT at present there are 1,700 unused places in our preschools; 7,500 in our primary schools; 3,000 in our high schools; and about 1,100 in our colleges. There are huge numbers of unused places, places which, however, we continue to light, heat and provide power to. We continue to provide support in the form of principals and janitors; we provide computer lines; we maintain the ovals and the other grounds around the schools. A whole series of costs flow from the fact that there are empty spaces in our schools, all of which we continue to service with no educational benefit to the students in our system.
There is no educational benefit in maintaining empty places. That is why this Government has decided to take up that issue. We have to identify that surplus capacity and trim it down so that we can concentrate resources on actually providing education to our students. That is the priority we have chosen for ourselves.
I want also to dispel some misapprehensions being generated very actively by the Opposition - which is very good at doing that these days - spreading fear and loathing and half-truths among the community. I want to make very clear just what it is that they are telling fibs about. First of all they are suggesting that there will be a massive explosion in the size of schools in the ACT; that we will see what one newspaper report the other day described as "school factories" - huge, faceless, anonymous institutions that will destroy the spirit of education and irreparably damage the education of our children.
Mr Berry: You will not tell us what is going to happen. You do not know. You told the people at school the other night that you did not know.
MR HUMPHRIES: I do know, Mr Berry; I do know. The Government is not talking about creating average school sizes that are larger than those that already exist in the ACT.
Mr Berry: Well, what size schools are you going to create? Tell us.
MR HUMPHRIES: I will tell you, Mr Berry, as I explained the other day. Mr Speaker, could I have some silence? I appreciate hearing Mr Berry's views on other occasions, but I would rather hear mine at the moment.
MR SPEAKER: Order! May I suggest that you do not respond to his interjections.
MR HUMPHRIES: When they are extremely stupid it is hard to avoid putting them down, Mr Speaker. The Government is talking about creating primary schools of a size between 400 and 600 pupils approximately, and high schools of a size between 800 and 1,000 pupils approximately.
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