Page 4877 - Week 16 - Tuesday, 26 November 1991
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process of adjustment to meet State-type levels of funding in the Territory, to the extent that we see that as appropriate, we must also be aware that there are certain levels of funding that are lower than State standards and that we ought to be considering raising to those State standards. I have mentioned on previous occasions that the two areas that particularly stood out in the eyes of the Commonwealth Grants Commission were the funding of mental health services and non-government education. I submit that we should examine the appropriateness of our present arrangements and improve the standing of non-government education vis-a-vis the rest of the education sector.
Going back for one moment to preschools, I remind the Assembly that ACT non-government preschools are the only ones in the country that are not funded. The situation is particularly bad for the Montessori preschool system because that system takes children from ages three to six, and in the final year, that is, five- to six-year-olds, they are in equivalent streams to those they would be in if they were in kindergarten at a primary school in the government or non-government sectors. What that means is that those children would attract funding if they were in the kindergarten stream in a non-government primary school or in a government primary school; but, being in the Montessori preschool system, they do not attract funding. That is clearly inequitable. The Montessori Society has made a number of submissions over the years, and I believe that it is high time this Assembly examined that question.
However, there is a much more important issue, with respect, and that is the question of non-government primary and secondary education. It has clearly been a matter of contention between the governments of the Territory and the non-government sector for a number of years and it is time government acted on this question. The first problem we encounter is the appropriateness of using Federal Government categories as the basis of funding ACT non-government schools. I have a table that appears in a submission made to the Labor Government by the non-government schools in the Territory; it sets out a comparison of fees for non-government schools. These are schools in category 1, that is, the level of least Federal Government funding. They are the schools that are deemed to be the most well-off.
All these schools are in the same category. They include schools such as Abbotsleigh in Sydney, the Kings School, Knox Grammar, Newington College, Scots College, Sydney Grammar School and Trinity Grammar School. All those schools I have quoted - in fact, all the schools in that schedule - charge levels of fees considerably above those charged by Canberra Grammar School. Canberra Grammar has the lowest level of fees charged in that category, with annual fees of $4,860. That compares with $7,900-odd for Sydney Grammar, $7,900 for the Kings School, $6,400 for Abbotsleigh, et cetera.
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