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

Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1997 Week 5 Hansard (13 May) . . Page.. 1302 ..

MS McRAE (continuing):

with leave, Mr Temporary Deputy Speaker, to show the other members who may not have had the opportunity to see this where my question is being used to seek information and then people are asked to indicate how much time was taken to collect it. That is outrageous. A red light is flashing away to say, "Mr Stefaniak, wake up. You are in charge. This department is playing games with you, and it is about time you took control".

Mr Moore: Mr Temporary Deputy Speaker, Ms McRae asked for leave to table that.

Leave granted.

MR STEFANIAK (Minister for Education and Training) (3.54): Mr Temporary Deputy Speaker, I will take Ms McRae's last point first. Just as an aside, Ms McRae, in your letter to the Speaker, there should be an apostrophe between the "r" and the "s" in "Ministers".

Ms McRae: If your system worked well, I would have learnt how to spell, Mr Stefaniak.

MR STEFANIAK: That is just basic literacy, Ms McRae, and that is certainly something that we are addressing in a very big way. Let me take Ms McRae's last point. Firstly, just in relation to that, I do not know whether that is the same thing as where there were four schools which did not respond. I would be interested to know who did not respond, Ms McRae. If you tell me that, I will certainly follow that up for you.

Some of your questions on notice certainly involved an incredible amount of work. As you know, they have to be responded to within a certain time. I think you might find an innocent explanation in relation to that note, just in terms of whether we were physically able to collate the relevant material to provide you with an answer in time. That could well be a very real explanation there. I know that, for two of your questions on notice, there was a lot of work involved and a lot of documentation that had to be found. I know that the department certainly did everything it could to get that information for you and get it in on time. I make that point.

Ms McRae raised a number of other issues, which I will deal with. Her first issue was in relation to college reforms. Ms McRae, our ACT Year 12 certificate is a very high quality award. It is nationally recognised for university entrance. It is also, I think, a critically important record for students and employers to validate students' educational achievements, to enable students to make sound career and further education decisions. The certification processes for that certificate are carefully monitored by the department and by the Board of Senior Secondary Studies, which has responsibility for the Year 11 and Year 12 curriculum assessment and also certification. That is why changes were made to existing arrangements that will make that certificate more consistent and more readily understood by students, employers and parents.

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