Page 2614 - Week 09 - Wednesday, 8 August 1990
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I turn to some of the points that Mr Wood raised in the course of the debate. He spoke at length about the arguments that he has heard in many places around the Territory, and which I have heard many times as well, from people who talk about their small schools and say, "Well, our schools are good schools. We achieve things in our schools. We like our schools. They are good schools". Of course, that argument is, up to a point, quite valid. There are many good small schools in the Territory.
But it does not follow, from that assertion, that large schools, or larger schools in the Territory, are not also good schools. To suggest constantly, as members opposite tend to do, that small schools are good schools seems to imply some slur on larger schools in the Territory. Those schools are good schools too. In many respects they are excellent schools, particularly because they have resources at their disposal to offer their students a wider range of opportunities than is the case in some small schools.
To attack the consolidation, in many respects, is to attack schools that have already been consolidated and which are achieving good things in our community. Those schools that were consolidated in previous years have, of course, experienced problems. Those problems are regrettable and none of us would wish them on any community willingly. However, I believe they have overcome those problems and they are all good schools.
How many people here have visited Arawang School, for example, or the Southern Cross Primary School, or any of the other schools that were amalgamated in 1987 and 1988? I have been to those schools and I think they are good schools. I think they are good schools achieving a great deal for their students and the kids there are not traumatised to the point of being unable to learn. Their lives have not been shattered by the fact that they have had to make that transition. They are getting on with a sound, good ACT-based education and that is what we can offer the students in the schools that are affected by the consolidations occurring at this time.
Members opposite tend to underestimate the resilience of our school system and our students. They are not fragile china dolls, the mere moving of whom results in some breakage or cracking. I think that students are a good deal more able to adapt to new circumstances than people imagine. Moving to a school in the next suburb is not the end of the world; it is not the end of civilisation; it is not the destruction of children's education. Particularly if it is coupled with an improvement in the resources available to their new school, it can actually be an improvement. Special education - - -
Mrs Grassby: You have probably never had to do it, Mr Humphries.
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