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

Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 2004 Week 04 Hansard (Tuesday, 30 March 2004) . . Page.. 1271 ..

On the issues of information and participation, the bill requires schools to report to parents and provide information on the school, its educational programs and its general operations. The expectation embodied in the bill is that schools will develop procedures to include parents in all aspects of school education and that they will be encouraged to support and participate in the life of the school.

All schools are subject to review of their performance and are accountable to the community and government. The bill requires monitoring and review processes to be in place for government and non-government schools. Home educators are also expected to review and report on the educational activities they provide for their children.

Mr Speaker, I now explain the major parts of the bill. The proposed law is organised into seven chapters with a schedule that contains the consequential changes to other legislation and a dictionary of terms used in the bill. Chapter 1 is a general chapter that contains standard preliminary items that name the act, provide for its commencement, and state the role of the dictionary and notes in the legislation.

The most important parts of this chapter are the principles and objectives. The principles have been substantially amended to affirm the positive themes I mentioned earlier, and place the emphasis on high quality education for all children in an open and accountable school education. The prohibition of corporal punishment in all schools is confirmed in the new bill.

Chapter 2 deals with school enrolments and attendance, retains the current compulsory school age from 6 to 15 years, and provides for student enrolment and attendance. As I noted when I presented the bill to the Assembly in November, there is an argument for raising the minimum school leaving age to 16 and I plan to have discussions on this matter with education and youth interest groups to determine the benefits and disadvantages to the community in doing this.

This chapter of the bill also carries forward and updates provisions regarding employment of children under the school leaving age and exemption certificates, and it requires the establishment of procedures for reporting the transfer of students between schools in the ACT.

Chapter 3 provides for the establishment, administration and governance of government schools and includes principles that will guide the implementation of the legislation. The chapter affirms that government schooling is based on equity, that schools provide a broad and balanced secular education, and that government schools are free and open to everyone. It introduces new provisions to allow greater flexibility in the provision of schooling and provides assurances that a school owned and operated by the territory will not be closed or amalgamated before adequate consultation with affected school communities has been undertaken.

The bill will make it a legal requirement for the effectiveness of each government school and the government school system as a whole to be regularly reviewed and to provide reports. The legislation sets out the responsibilities of principals in the provision of information to parents. Provisions on school boards are enhanced by giving them responsibility for establishing the strategic directions and priorities for the school.

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