Page 3562 - Week 12 - Wednesday, 12 October 1994
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She referred to alternatives for those who do not necessarily have an academic bent. Again, that is something that is quite basic. I can recall that, in the 1960s, here in Canberra you had a number of subjects available. Some students in high school did not necessarily have an academic bent. They worked out more or less what they would like to try - not university, but something more practical - and tended to do a series of practical subjects that might help them get a job when they left school. They probably had every intention of not going on even to college. Other students, including me, I suppose, did not have much of an idea of exactly what we wanted to do. We tended to do other subjects too. That is something that has been in our system for many years.
Perhaps too much emphasis on just getting an education, rather than at some stage focusing on the end result, is an area where improvements can be made as well. Certain schools might like to pick up a certain area of expertise, especially with the way our system has gone now, where more kids go to schools out of area. That practice is far greater now than it was 20 or 30 years ago in Canberra. Most students tended to go to their local school and there was very little out-of-area movement at all. That is certainly something that has happened over the last 20 years. Mrs Carnell's comments in relation to skills, jobs, a practical link to the work force and the one-week work experience could be extended. They are good, practical, sensible comments, in which I think any educationalist would see merit.
In relation to the specific matter that Ms Szuty raised - the failure to effectively manage government school enrolments - over the last three years there has been a problem. My colleague Mr Cornwell has commented on the census figures which are put out by the department early in the school year. Each year these figures have clearly demonstrated a trend towards dropping enrolments in some areas and rising enrolments in others. The Follett ALP Government's gift to the ACT is severe overcrowding in some schools and a booming emptiness in others. I will go through some of Mr Cornwell's figures. His press release of 5 May 1994 stated:
Despite another creative effort the 1994 ACT Government School Census showed an increase of 1,193 surplus spaces on the 1993 figures ... even allowing for legitimate deductions from the surplus space total of 11,840 places for special cases (1,275 spaces) and unused spaces in new schools (330) there were still 10,235 excess student places in 1994 compared with 9,072 excess places in 1993.
In an earlier press release, of 27 April 1993, he commented:
The census shows 1,098 surplus spaces in colleges, 2,518 places in high schools and 5,456 surplus spaces in primary schools. This is in spite of the Government's efforts to hive off additional surplus spaces for use by all sorts of special or even non-educational purposes ... however the Government tries to cover it up, the bottom line is a minimum of 7,846 or a maximum of 9,072 surplus student capacity.
That applied to schools at that time.
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