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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1997 Week 5 Hansard (13 May) . . Page.. 1303 ..

MR STEFANIAK (continuing):

I understand, Ms McRae, that Hawker College did not have too much trouble with this. Narrabundah did. I have had a number of conversations with individuals and a meeting with a number of people from Narrabundah in relation to it. As a result of the consultation, the department and the board have a planned approach to implementing those changes progressively, with full implementation by 1999. That specifically, Mr Temporary Deputy Speaker, is to enable the current cohort at Narrabundah to go through under the trimester program.

The system that we have is a robust one, but it does need to reflect more clearly the requirements of our community. I think the Year 12 certificates should be clearly identified with the ACT rather than with specific colleges, and these changes move us further towards this situation. The proposed changes also reflect broad agreement between the board and the department about the need for some adjustment to college arrangements to achieve a more coordinated and consistent approach, in the interests of fairness to students, transparency and efficient use of resources. There have been ongoing discussions about these issues between the central office of the department, the Board of Senior Secondary Studies and college principals.

As I just indicated, I met with representatives of the Narrabundah College board. I listened to their views with interest and, indeed, with concern. I was very keen to see that they had ample time for any changes to be made. That has occurred. The adjustments that were made retain the core elements of school-based assessment and curriculum development and flexibility for colleges. As well, the changes will make it easier for students who, for whatever reason, decide to change college during their Year 12 studies. The changes are that, basically, colleges follow a semester-based curriculum structure and be allowed to offer half-semester units. That in itself gets over a lot of the problems which Ms McRae mentioned. Also, all colleges follow a common approach to calculating and reporting unit and course scores, and all colleges follow common standards for assessing and reporting student learning outcomes through the use of course frameworks. This will provide additional information on student achievement, complementing the current marks, scores and grades.

Mr Temporary Deputy Speaker, input on all these changes has been provided from the college and high school boards, from the ACT P and C Council and from the Australian Education Union. Obviously, when there is any change, there will be some opposition to it; but I think, as a result of the consultations that have occurred, the real needs of the affected colleges have been taken into consideration. In fact, I was talking to someone from Narrabundah only on the weekend. Whilst preferring that it did not happen, they could see how they would manage and keep the desired degree of flexibility they need.

Also, I have talked to a number of students who have attended these colleges, especially Hawker and Narrabundah. Let us concentrate on Narrabundah. I have spoken to students who have been there in recent times. They went there, not so much for the trimester system - indeed, several did not even know, when they were going there, that they had that system - but for the reputation for academic excellence that college has, for some of the subjects it offers, for the fact that it has some specific areas of expertise such as the arts and drama particularly, and for the baccalaureate, which things have really highlighted Narrabundah as a very desirable college. Those students indicated that their desire to go to Narrabundah did not have anything at all to do with the trimester system.

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