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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 2004 Week 07 Hansard (Tuesday, 29 June 2004) . . Page.. 2987 ..

promising to see some effort being put back in this area—an area of education impacting significantly on the learning and teaching environments—we are not seeing any firm initiatives or statements, which ought to be accompanying this appropriation, in this particularly important area.

Where in the appropriation do we have the resources to take on the types of strategies to retain good teachers? These strategies ought to be more heavily funded to help our younger teachers, too many of whom are struggling to cope with disruptive students and often feel ill equipped to carry out student management or pastoral care duties. What is the situation in schools with regards to teacher capability? We are reaching a point where a lot of very experienced teachers in their early to mid-fifties are retiring. This is a major problem for which we cannot hold the government responsible.

This is the same issue I raised when talking about the police earlier. No government in this country can deal with the problem that has occurred as a result of the baby boomer exodus. However, some younger teachers do not seem to be getting past the five or six-year mark; they seem to be burning out. We want to see more being done in the way of retention.

What about the balance of experience, mentoring and leadership in schools? We have heard the formula of one executive teacher to six level-one teachers being discussed a number of times. I know that the minister has heard about that and I think she agrees that that would be a desirable level. I hope she can do that. The aim to improve the ratio so that younger teachers are better mentored is important to this retention strategy, one would have thought. I hope that the minister is able to come up with some clear strategies, in addition to what is being appropriated, to improve the retention factor.

What about the personal development of teachers? During the estimates hearings I asked the minister whether additional funding was being set aside for personal development and whether, as part of the negotiation process for the EBA, any thought had been given to a larger personal development allowance being factored in for teachers. I do not think there is. Unfortunately it would seem that the bag of gold set aside for personal development is not being increased. There do not appear to be any further appropriations provided to build that capability.

I want to address the issue of health and fitness. In the appropriation no concrete action has been taken and no resources have been given to move forward in an area that has been identified by our Assembly Health Committee and a variety of other community bodies as needing major attention. We have talked before about the number of children suffering from obesity and health problems. We do not seem to have enough funding being provided.

During estimates I have asked the department about the plans it has, but I have not heard of any plans to even significantly increase the PE teacher capability. If we are going to do something about tackling obesity and health issues, we need to do something to formalise PE in all of our schools—and that means increasing the number of teachers who are capable of teaching PE. Also, I do not see any additional resources being made available to upgrade sporting activities in schools or to find a stronger marriage between schools and communities for community and school-sponsored sporting activities at the weekends just to keep things moving along.

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