Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . .

Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1997 Week 3 Hansard (10 April) . . Page.. 915 ..

MR WHITECROSS (continuing):

Mr Speaker, learning on the job, learning by practice, competency-based learning, is the way education is done these days. It is not done on the basis of throwing people in at the deep end, letting them go on the course for 13 weeks, or however long, and then whacking an exam on at the end. That is not the way we educate anymore. That is not the kind of approach that we adopt to education. What we are doing with this driver training is giving people a way of learning which is more in tune with the educational philosophies of the 1990s, but we are not taking away from people the opportunity to learn in any other way. Anybody can walk away from this approach at any time, whether they are halfway through the course or whether they are at the beginning of the course. It is their choice.

Ms Horodny said that some people can go a long time before they work up the courage to stand up for themselves. That is a problem we all deal with in society, Ms Horodny, in all walks of life, whether in the workplace or when dealing with driving instructors. The reality is that people have the choice. If they would rather have their mother teach them to drive, they can. If they would rather have a non-accredited trainer teach them to drive, they can. If they want to go through the competency-based approach, they can. There are safeguards. There are auditing approaches. I hope that there will be an appropriate strategic approach to ensure that instructors who are considered to be at risk are given priority for auditing; that the auditing process is rigorous and that it will, as Ms Horodny said, weed out instructors who are not up to standard. That is what we have a right to expect, and it will be in the Government's hands to deliver that. I do not believe that we should be supporting Ms Horodny's amendment.

MS HORODNY (4.57): Mr Speaker, there seems to be some misunderstanding about what I said, or else people have chosen not to pay attention to what I said. The test is not a substitute for the accreditation system, for the logbook process. It is an additional thing. I did say that the test given at the end for those students who have gone through the logbook process would not be as extensive as the test given to learner drivers who have not used the accredited driving system. You would not be applying the same test to both classes of students. People who have gone through the logbook process have a much simpler, shorter and smaller test at the end. People who have not gone through the logbook process have to do the full test. As for the audit process, Mr Kaine said that 10 per cent of the students would be tested. In fact, it is the driving instructors who would be tested.

Mr Kaine: No, I did not say that. I said that 10 per cent of the students would be audited; not tested, audited.

MS HORODNY: But it is not actually the students who are being audited; it is the driving instructors.

Mr Kaine: No, it is both.

MS HORODNY: Well, it is not the students.

Mr Kaine: It is both.

MR SPEAKER: Order! If this is a dialogue you can both go outside.

Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . .