Page 1996 - Week 08 - Tuesday, 5 June 1990
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MS FOLLETT: I have a supplementary question, Mr Speaker. Mr Kaine seems unaware that the Downer School was closed in 1988.
Mr Kaine: Well, why did you ask me the question?
MS FOLLETT: The reason I asked you the question was to ask whether, in regard to the Priorities Review Board report, you would agree that when a school does close it consequently changes the social diversity in our suburbs.
MR KAINE: If that was a supplementary question, Mr Speaker, I think I answered the question in general terms because what I said related to any school. Those are the very factors that the Government is considering in looking at the criteria which Mr Humphries has identified and which will be applied before any school is closed. The alternative uses for that school will be considered in particular in terms of other forms of community use. So the answer to the question still holds.
School Consolidations
MRS NOLAN: My question is to Mr Humphries, again in his capacity as Minister for Education. The ACT Government justifies the school consolidation program on the basis that there are some 13,000 surplus places in ACT government schools. How is this figure determined, and what action has the Minister taken to ensure that the figure is accurate and therefore the program is justified?
MR HUMPHRIES: Mrs Nolan asks first of all how the surplus capacity figure was determined.
Mr Wood: We were asking this two months ago and you would not tell us.
MR HUMPHRIES: If Mr Wood would like to listen, he will hear now. The answer, Mr Wood, is that the capacities of individual schools are based on the number of teaching areas and the availability of support spaces such as libraries, craft areas and staff studies. In the case of secondary schools, the availability of specialist facilities such as science laboratories is also an important factor. The 13,000-plus surplus spaces were derived by subtracting the number of student enrolments from the number of spaces available. This does not include surplus transportable classrooms. I have said all that before.
The second part of the question Mrs Nolan asked was: what action have I taken to ensure that the figure is accurate and, accordingly, is the program justified? In the last few weeks the Department of Education has revised those figures to assess whether or not the figure of 13,000 or
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