Page 2724 - Week 09 - Thursday, 25 August 1994
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Let me give Mr Cornwell and other members some figures. Before I do, let me comment on the Commonwealth Schools Commission report that gave out certain recommended desirable sizes of schools. Of course, the Schools Commission does not exist any more. I think it did desirable work, but it does not exist; it is no longer in operation. I would not seek to discredit any of its reports. I think that during its life it did an outstanding job. Mr Cornwell and the members of the committee seem to say that we must not have schools of excess size. It is over 800 for a high school, is it? Let me give you some figures of schools in Canberra, and I would ask anybody to stand up and tell me if they are not good schools. I would have said that they are. Canberra Girls Grammar senior school has 868 students. On the criteria that you put down here, that is not good; we should not have it. Canberra Grammar has 964 students. Radford College has 910 students. Would Mr Cornwell and other members of the committee go out and say to those schools, "Hey, this is not a good educational establishment".
Mr Humphries: They are very well resourced, though, are they not?
MR WOOD: Those schools tell me, and I think you have told me, Mr Humphries, that they get fewer resources than government schools.
Mr Humphries: They do from government, yes. I am not saying that they are poor schools, but they are not very well resourced from government.
MR WOOD: All right; they are well resourced schools. By the criteria established by the Commonwealth Government, the Federal department, they are well resourced schools because they are in categories 1, 3 and 6, respectively. So they are well resourced. Let me go to a category 10 school. A category 10 school, on that basis, therefore, is much less well resourced, and this is a good school. Daramalan College had 1,207 students, as at February 1994.
Mr Moore: That is actually two schools. They have a high school, a college, and a primary school.
MR WOOD: No; I think these figures are separated out, Mr Moore. I will come to some primary schools in a minute. Merici College, nearby, has 926 students. St Francis Xavier High School out at Florey has 919 students. They are category 10 schools. Do you want to tell me, or do you want to tell them, that their schools are too big; that they cannot do the job because they are too big? I would not want to tell them that. I have been into most of these schools and I assess them to be operating extremely well. St Clare's College has 1,128 students. Marist College has 1,121 students. Let us look at some primary schools that are above the size that this committee's report tells me is too high. Holy Family Primary School has 822 students.
Mr De Domenico: It is a great school.
MR WOOD: Mr De Domenico is right. It is a great school.
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