Page 1905 - Week 07 - Thursday, 31 May 1990
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . .
Partnership in curriculum alone is not enough. We need that partnership between the department and whoever is in government, between the parents and the department. The quote continues:
The statement will provide a curriculum planning environment that will emphasise high standards of teaching and learning, consistent with the Government's policy ... The statement ... will identify three priority concerns: firstly, essential learning outcomes; secondly, essential learning processes; and, thirdly, essential areas of knowledge and experience.
In that, we may be well on our way, Mr Humphries, to a definition of "quality" in terms of curriculum. However, we will be very interested to see how you define "curriculum".
I think it was very important that the Minister actually singled out high schools. We are very aware that
certain sectors of our education system are recognised throughout Australia as being highly advanced - and the college fits into that category. However, while our high school system compares very favourably with those of the other States we would like to see it much improved. I shall be interested to see how the approaches that the Minister has outlined here are developed - and in the past they have been developed through the high school principals and so forth - and how he, in turn, will play his part in improving the high school situation.
The statement refers to preschools in terms of closing and rationalising, but there is nothing about quality - nothing at all about how we could improve the quality, however the Minister defines it, of our preschool education. That is not such a bad note to finish on, as I am running out of time. I hope Mr Humphries will answer my question and tell us how he defines "quality" in those areas. His reply would be greatly appreciated.
MRS GRASSBY (10.59): The ministerial statement on education, which we are debating, was thrown up as a smokescreen to take up the time of the parliament and to divert attention from the real intentions of this anti-education Government. The statement purports to outline a number of measures - and this is terribly important to the people outside - supposedly designed to improve education in the Territory. Yet, while the Minister was reading his speech, he knew that the plans he had put in place would seriously reduce the quality of education provided for children. He claims to support the education system but his actions are entirely destructive. The community unanimously has told him so, yet he persists in his attack on the system.
I do not believe that the measures to close so many schools, with all the destructive unrest that they will
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . .