Page 376 - Week 02 - Wednesday, 13 May 1992
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HIGH SCHOOLS DEVELOPMENT PROGRAM
Debate resumed from 8 April 1992, on motion by Ms Szuty:
That the newly elected ACT Labor Government implement at the earliest opportunity a high schools development program.
MS SZUTY (10.57): Madam Speaker, I will not take up the Assembly's time going over all the points raised in my initial speech, but I would like to reiterate a few salient points. It has been some years since the report "Cohesion, Co-ordination and Communication" extensively recommended improvements in high schools. Again in 1991, the Belconnen Region High Schools Task Force drew the attention of the Government and the community to the need to better resource high schools.
At a time of high youth unemployment, it is this age group that needs support to keep our young people in the education system for their benefit. While the ACT has a high retention rate, it is these middle years of schooling that now urgently need to be addressed. I quote a teacher of 20 years, Chris Warren, who was recently interviewed by Karen Hobson of the Canberra Times on the issue of teaching:
I do not think there is a crisis within individual classrooms but I do believe there is a crisis in high schools, and the only way to go is to spend money to reduce teachers' face-to-face load in recognition of the demands that are constantly being faced with curriculum development.
Ms Warren agreed that the high school sector has serious problems, and she is forthright about the answer - money.
MADAM SPEAKER: Ms Szuty, I am sorry to interrupt, but I just want to make it absolutely clear to members what we are doing here. In normal circumstances we would have thought that you had concluded your speech at the last sitting. What we are doing is giving you the extra four minutes that you did not take last time, which gives you a few more minutes now, and then you will be able to speak again at the conclusion of the debate. I want to be absolutely sure that we all know what we are doing.
MS SZUTY: Ms Warren's call for increased funding joins a decade of submissions, papers and requests for greater input to a sector that was left to find its own identity when the ACT adopted a two-tier secondary system of junior high schools and senior colleges. On top of this, high schools have to cope with every parent's nightmare - adolescence and the enormous social, health and sex issues this encompasses.
Teachers are confronted daily by teenagers questioning their authority and values and by the community demanding social responsibility. Ms Warren said, "Teachers are now often seen as questioning family values because we teach children to question and to support their opinions clearly and logically".
In my earlier speech to the Assembly I referred to the need to improve student management in classrooms through easing the staffing formula. It has been recognised for many years, as the colleges were brought into existence and then
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