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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 2000 Week 5 Hansard (11 May) . . Page.. 1495 ..

MR STEFANIAK (continuing):

accountability and maintaining public faith in the government's school system. Overall, signs are clear that our parents, students and staff have great faith in the quality of the public education provided in our schools and that satisfaction levels are generally improving. It is very good endorsement of the excellent public education system that we do have in the territory.

I thank the parents, students and staff, including administration staff as well teachers, for the part they played in the review process, and for putting forward their reviews. I am delighted that those are so positive. I am particularly interested in where there are areas for improvement, but I think the report generally shows an excellent level of satisfaction with what is an excellent public school system in the ACT and one that still is very much the envy of a lot of other systems in this country. I would commend the school development report 1999 to the Assembly.

MR BERRY: Mr Temporary Deputy Speaker, I seek leave to respond.

Leave granted.

MR BERRY: Thank you, Mr Temporary Deputy Speaker. I welcome the opportunity to have a look at this report. I do not know what to make of it in statistical terms. It is from a small and different group of high schools from the last time, and it is very difficult to make much of it in that sense.

But notwithstanding, it is a grouped number of responses from a range of people in relation to a whole range of matters. I said at the outset that this is a reminder to us of the excellent quality staff that we have in our public school system who are waiting for a pay rise, and I made that clear as well-a pay rise which is not included in the budget and which will therefore constitute an education cut if sought within budget. It is no wonder that teachers say that they have confidence in the public system because they do, but they worry about the treatment of that system by conservative governments. That is no secret. Indeed, parents who send their children to public schools also endorse the public system. They either send their children to public schools for this reason or because, although they may wish to send their children to private schools, they cannot do so because of the cost.

There are a number of areas where the government ought to be concerned about its performance, and I notice that computers in classrooms was, from my recollection of the report, one area of concern for students and parents. It is interesting that this theme continues, although the government was emphatic in its denial of problems when the Commonwealth criticised it about its performance in this regard some short time earlier.

This report is useful in the sense that it does document some concerns about the government's performance in this area. I see it as useful in my keeping this minister accountable in relation to this matter. I notice that the minister did say nice things about his staff, but it would be good if it was just a little more than words. This is Bill the bursar basher, remember. The bursars took minor industrial action and were stood down with this minister's acquiescence. If that is how you treat good staff, there are a few lessons to be learnt.

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