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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 2002 Week 5 Hansard (8 May) . . Page.. 1343 ..

MS MacDONALD (continuing):

the ACT has a proud record of retention rates. In large part it is due to the fact that in Canberra parents of students going into high school have a higher level of education and are keen to encourage their children to stay on. That has always been the case in the ACT because of the high number of public servants within the territory.

As has been said, we can never afford to let our retention rate slip. We cannot be easy about our good record. We can always do more.

The Labor Party has a proud record in this country of encouraging education and training. It was the Keating Labor government that recognised the importance of students staying on at school until the end of year 12. With apprenticeships and traineeships falling at the time, students who left at year 10 without having something to go into did not have a future.

I applaud what the minister, Mr Corbell, said about not just retention rates to year 12 but also equivalent training. This is incredibly important. As I have mentioned in this place before, Canberra has the highest rate of students in the country going from year 12 to higher education-that is, university. The rate is just under 30 per cent, according to the 1996 Australian Bureau of Statistic census figures. That leaves at least 70 per cent of students who do not go on to university from high school. So what do we do with those students? As Mr Corbell said, we need to look not just at year 12 retention rates but also at equivalent training.

Ms Tucker mentioned that we should help students with disadvantage. She talked about the report last year that showed that 20 per cent of students did not get their year 12 certificate. This is of great concern to me and to people within the education sector. If students start year 12 but do not complete and do not get anything else instead of year 12, their prospects are much less than those of others.

There is no disagreement amongst the Labor Party in expressing confidence in the ACT schooling system. We have an excellent schooling system here. But there are a lot of areas which are lacking. There are also a lot of areas in the vocational educational and training sector that are lacking. Mr Stefaniak talked about the numbers of students in years 11 and 12 in the college sector who have gone on and done a vocational course. A lot of students are using those courses as time fillers, in my opinion.

The ACT college system is not necessarily the best place to do a vocational course. You cannot get a school-based new apprenticeship with great ease here. I have had two meetings this week about how to assist school-based new apprenticeships in the ACT.

While I agree that our teachers and the education system in the ACT are excellent and lead the country in a lot of ways, there is always more we can do, especially in the vocational education and training areas and looking after those students who come from a less advantaged background.

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