Page 1811 - Week 07 - Wednesday, 30 May 1990
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What happens physically in schools that are not designed to operate with greater numbers? I am not exactly a small person - I think this was probably arranged carefully - and I was in the stairwell at the time of a lesson change. It was only by grasping the handrail very tightly that I was not bowled all the way down to the bottom of the stairs.
I have taught in high schools which have far greater numbers - more than 2,000 in Canada - and those schools have corridors that are three times as wide as normal and have a series of other designs to ensure that they can handle that number of students. Our schools are not designed that way. What you are trying to do is force too many students into schools that are not designed for large numbers.
The president of the Ginninderra SRC spoke to an assembly of the students on school closures, and I will quote some of her speech. She said:
The Government sees the area of public education as one where large cuts can be made.
She then spoke about Mr Humphries at the Weetangera meeting, and said:
I thought his answers were unsatisfactory to the numerous questions being asked. It was also obvious that Mr Humphries has no children, no empathy for education and public education in particular.
Further, she said:
The Government thinks that by closing some schools in the ACT they will save money by having bigger schools. No school is safe.
The people of Erindale were happy to invite me out to their school and I understand they have invited numerous other members as well. I was there with Mr Langmore. I know that Mr Humphries has been invited and I hope he takes the opportunity to go out there to see what happens in a school. (Extension of time granted)
At Ginninderra we have a school which is overstocked, it has more students than it is designed for and, whilst it has a good quality education, it has a lot of problems. People recognise that those problems do not have to exist when the schools are used in the way in which they were designed. In fact, with fewer students they could have a better quality education, and that is the reality of the situation.
Mr Humphries: What about these small schools, Michael? What about the schools with 140 students?
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