Page 4883 - Week 16 - Tuesday, 26 November 1991
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The Rally is happy to accept this inquiry, despite its limited range. But I would argue that there are a lot of other things to be looked at in connection with non-government schools. It could be that, between Mr Humphries and Mr Wood, the possibility of looking at these could be looked at. Let me go through them.
I welcome the suggestion that we need to look most carefully at these categories - category 1 down to category 10 - as they relate to Canberra. Canberra has a particular situation. Our schools form a particular part of the education system in this country. We are very much a pioneering system. We have some remarkable new initiatives in Canberra. Our population is not similar in all respects to other States. Certainly, we need to look at this.
One of the problems with the removal of the cushioning - which I hope will be returned by the end of today - to these three schools is the inadequacy of those categories. If those categories had not been picked up holus-bolus and made use of in the local scene, we would not have the problem we have today. We have only to look at the AME School to see the degree to which category 3 is inappropriate for the needs of that school.
There are some other things that could be considered in a non-government schools inquiry. The first is the appropriateness or otherwise of single-sex schools, or possibly the degree to which non-government schools offer a needed alternative to the mixed schools all through the public system. A report on non-government schools might be able to say to the government school system, "You offer no alternatives; you have only mixed-sex schools. What about having in the public sector some all male or all female schools? Why should they be limited to the non-government sector?". That is something that could come out of a non-government schools inquiry.
The second point is whether or not the three Anglican schools adequately provide places for all Anglican families in the diocese. Only on anecdotal evidence do I understand that that is not the case. Is there, therefore, a need for more Anglican schools, to try to cope with the large number of Anglican families in the diocese? I understand that some families cannot get in, especially if they do not have sufficient funds. That should not be the rationale for getting into a religious school. It should be based on religious motives, denominational motives.
Thirdly, there is the question of the relative merits of an examination system, based in New South Wales, as contrasted with the assessment system in the ACT. Possibly, and I will try to be open-minded about this, there could be at least one public school, state school, government school, that has another kind of examination system, just for contrast. Similarly, I would argue that within a school that has an old-fashioned and passe system - that is, the
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