Page 1076 - Week 04 - Wednesday, 20 March 1991
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I believe that the policy that should apply is simply this: Wherever possible, children should go into mainstream schools. It is also necessary for special provisions to be made, and with those provisions the education department must provide, as it does, good guidance to parents about the best placement for their child. That happens now. That is the situation today, and it has been for quite some time. But beyond that, there is a further step that needs to follow and that is that, ultimately, the decision about where a child goes to school is the responsibility of the parent. That is not the case at the moment, and it is a matter, I understand, of some consideration within the Government, certainly within the education bureaucracy. At the present moment, the education department can veto a child's attendance at a mainstream school if it is considered that the child would be better placed in a special unit.
It may be that the education department is right; maybe its judgment is better than the parents', because I believe that good advice is given. Nevertheless, the responsibility is ultimately the parents', and I think that that is a further step that we need to take. I know that certain matters have been raised with the Human Rights Commission. I am not aware that it has yet reached any sort of determination, or recommendation, or whatever form the commission uses to make its findings; but that will come, and I believe that it will be a desirable change in this town. Let me say that I am not criticising the Government for this, because this has been a practice that has applied for quite a long time. So there is no element of criticism in what I say.
Let me focus on the integration program. It is a strange coincidence and an unhappy one in that today I believe that there is a crisis in the school where Penny Caiger has been enrolled. Because of sudden staffing changes brought about because numbers were not high enough, and that caused changed sizes of classes, it has been suggested to the school that maybe the integration program cannot continue. That has nothing to do with Penny Caiger. It is a totally different matter relating to staffing changes, and it is purely coincidental and unfortunate that it has happened at the school that she has not long been enrolled at - at least, I believe that that is the school that she is at. I am disturbed to hear that there is a suggestion that the integration program may be threatened. It is a very important program, and it has to be continued.
I want to conclude by saying, going back to the case of Carlos Moreno, that his parents should be able to decide what school he goes to. They should be in the position where they can assess whether the specialised facilities that his physical handicap needs override the desire that they have for an education in a mainstream school, where they believe that his intellectual needs can best be catered for. They need to be in a position to make that decision.
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