Page 353 - Week 02 - Tuesday, 19 February 1991
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MR HUMPHRIES: I am not quite sure what Mr Stevenson is getting at, Mr Speaker. My comments were merely to indicate that I sincerely hoped that the report of the standing committee took full account of the evidence - the scientific and medical evidence - in this matter. I am sure that Mr Stevenson's comments in his dissenting report will assist me in assessing whether that is the case or not. I suspect that Mr Stevenson probably believes that it has not taken into account scientific and medical evidence, otherwise presumably he would not have written a dissenting report. However, I think it is important for us to ensure that we, as an Assembly, fully consider the evidence put forward in that report and decide for ourselves whether the report's review of the evidence in this area justifies the conclusions that have been reached.
Macquarie Primary School
MR WOOD: I direct a question to the Minister for Education, Mr Humphries. In the Assembly on Thursday last, Minister, you stated in relation to the class size of grade 5 at Macquarie Primary School:
... although there are 36 children in the class, it is treated as a composite class and has two teachers ... there is a ratio of 18 children to each teacher.
Given that there are not two teachers in the class all day, every day, as you claimed, will you admit that you have once again misled the Assembly?
MR HUMPHRIES: I have to reject that assertion. My advice to the Assembly, based on everything that I have had available to me at the moment or at any other stage, has been fully accurate. Now, Mr Wood asks a slightly double-edged question there. He says - - -
Mr Connolly: Are there two teachers all the time?
MR HUMPHRIES: I am instructed, Mr Speaker, that there are 36 children in that class; that there are two teachers available in that class to provide teaching for those children; therefore that constitutes a ratio of one teacher per 18 students. If a teacher goes out at some stage during the day to do something - I do not know; run an errand or something of that kind - perhaps there might not always be, at every moment in time, two teachers in that class. Whether that constitutes some change in the ratio is another matter. Sometimes teachers leave their classes altogether and there are no teachers in front of some classes. That is - - -
Ms Follett: You are the one who claimed the ratio, though.
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