Page 3399 - Week 11 - Wednesday, 13 October 1993
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Let me also quote from the ALP policy document "Better for Canberra's Young People":
Labor will:
provide extra resources to Government high schools to tackle the increasing need for improved pastoral care, counselling and careers advisory services to young Canberrans. Each high school will be given an additional two line allowances for staff to extend these services, at a cost of approximately $290,000. This allocation represents the first step in Labor's commitment to develop a plan to meet the needs of young people in high schools.
These two documents provided for the electorate an impression of a government which it felt it could trust to care for and protect the ACT school system. I feel that that trust has been betrayed by this decision. And what of the social justice agenda that the Government so often speaks of? There is no social justice in removing 80 teaching and support positions from the ACT work force and causing what could be irreparable damage to our young people by reducing the quality of education available in our schools. I and many others are convinced that the improvement of educational outcomes rests on the quality of our teaching staff. That quality cannot be maintained when resources are stretched.
Social justice principles would lead me to believe that the best educational outcomes for students - regardless of family status, family income or area of residence - are guaranteed by the Government. If the government school sector cannot provide the quality of education parents want for their children, then those who can afford to may choose to go outside that system, leading to a further eroding of staff numbers and options within the government school system. We need a strong government school system to ensure that a quality education is not a product of advantage but is universally offered, is mindful of the varying problems students can face and can cater for students with special needs. The Government stated in its social justice budget statement:
The Government recognises the link between education and training and employment.
But what is it that the Government sees as the link? It is not just the tertiary and vocational training that happens after school based education stops; it encompasses the whole issue of a quality education up to that level which provides young people with the skills and learning that will make it possible for them to capitalise on these training opportunities. Tertiary education should be founded on a solid school based education which provides students with the knowledge and skills necessary to operate at tertiary, traineeship or apprenticeship levels. This cannot be provided by a school system that is being squeezed in its most essential resource area - teaching staff.
From reports I have had, 15 staff will go from primary schools, 30 from high schools, 30 from colleges, three from special education and the remaining two from "other schools". On top of this, of course, 10 positions will be cut from the department, although what form the final cuts will take has not yet been identified. In the ACT the removal of 30 teaching positions from the college system will seriously hamper a system which has long been lauded as a model for
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