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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1996 Week 8 Hansard (25 June) . . Page.. 2102 ..

MS McRAE (continuing):

Of course, what parents want above all is some guarantee that there will be an equivalence of resources across the system. The Government pointed out that they had increased their per school granting for discretionary funding. I think part of the complaints that we were hearing through the inquiry was that there is a variation in the quality of equipment, the range of equipment, and the age of the equipment that is available to schoolteachers. I would hope, as a result of the further work that the Government does as we start to delve a little further, that perhaps some flexibility can apply, and that some of the schools that feel that they are really working against all odds in terms of equipping their schools well will be dealt with beyond the equity fund and with a little more sensitivity by the central advisory body. Mr Stefaniak points out that it is very much an advisory and supportive body which has put many schools onto good leasing programs and other management programs. In many cases I think it just has to be granted that some schools have had a much more difficult time in offering the range of basic equipment that has now become standard. So, a bit of flexibility in that area, I think, would be very useful.

I think what comes out of this overall is that we are not moving to reduce the dependence on voluntary school contributions and that the Government, and presumably now the community at large, has accepted that parent contributions are - well, I hesitate to say it - a necessary part. Unfortunately that seems to be the case. I would like to see this Government take the lead next year and offer a wider range of support for schools in the terms of workshops about what yields the best type of result in terms of fundraising. I am well aware that the Education Union has already done this work. It would not take very much to draw on what they have done and assist schools. Like the much heralded help team that is going out to our small shops, perhaps we could use a similar model with a help team within the schools authority, or even a voluntary group drawn from the P and C associations, for fundraising.

Something I mentioned when I first talked about the response to the PAC inquiry is a recognition that the physical locations of some schools make it almost impossible for them to draw on anything other than the immediate school community for extra funds; whereas other schools, purely by nature of their location, and, of course, with good entrepreneurial activity too, do better. Even with the best will in the world, Latham Primary School is a long way from everybody else, and nobody drives past Latham Primary School except people who live in Latham. On the other hand, people who go past Telopea Park School are on a thoroughfare and come from a lot of different places; so the capacity to draw extras to a fete, to a fundraising concert or to other activities is very great. Whilst this is not a major factor that affects fundraising, I think it is something that we ought to recognise, and in some way offer support and assistance for innovative ideas or collaborative ideas for schools that find themselves in general socioeconomic regions of low socioeconomic input, or just physically placed in an area that makes it very difficult for them to draw on extra funds.

I must say that this report is a great improvement on what we saw before. I think it is now an issue well and truly on the mainstream agenda for the future of schooling in the ACT. The expenses that face our schools - Mr Stefaniak is only beginning to realise - in terms of fitting out IT properly is something that will face any government, and this at least is a beginning. The cabling has been accelerated a little and coordinated, and the provision of computers has been improved. That is clearly the way of the future.

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