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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 2004 Week 10 Hansard (Thursday, 26 August 2004) . . Page.. 4305 ..

As I said in my preface, this report is about a very important issue. We need to ensure that our youth are being properly educated and that the people who teach them are equipped with the skills to do that. This report has looked into that.

I finish by thanking the members of the committee, Mr Pratt and Ms Dundas, for their input to this report and this inquiry and, as this is the committee’s last report of this Assembly, I thank them for their efforts over the past three years. It has been good to work with them. I am happy to say that we have not had a dissenting report for any of our inquiries and we have in the main been in agreement on the issues, which has been refreshing.

I also thank David Skinner, the former secretary of the Standing Committee on Education, for his work until he changed roles in this place, and Ms Kerry McGlinn. I know that the inquiry has been a steep learning curve for her. She did not come into the chamber for the tabling of this report, which I thought she should do, but I can see her outside hiding behind the glass. I know that writing this report has been a learning process for her. I appreciate all the research and effort she put into writing the report. Today or tomorrow will be her final day in this place, unless things change, and I hope that she will get to come back to this place if that is what she wants to do. I commend the report to the Assembly.

MR PRATT (11.40): Mr Speaker, to pick up on Ms MacDonald’s final comments, it is quite true to say that the committee has been in general agreement with its various inquiries. There have been differences in emphasis by the three of us, but all of the inquiries that we have run have been essential inquiries going to the heart of most important aspects of ACT education. Those issues have been handled in a multipartisan way. I think that that has been clearly reflected in the reports on the inquiries that we have done, particularly this one.

Teachers are the lifeblood of education. They are, rightly, the most costly and the most valuable asset in the education system. The management of our teacher asset is, therefore, one of the highest priorities in education and, I would put it to members, one of the highest priorities in government.

For some years, teachers across the country have wondered whether they are valued in society, or even held somewhere near the level of esteem that society once elevated them to. Teaching is a vocation. It is not just a job; it is a vocation. Blokes of my age can certainly remember when teachers were regarded as hallowed people rather than simply paid public servants. The committee was quite keen to find out, amongst many things, whether any of these elements of traditional teaching were still there, whether teachers aspire to teach as a way of life and not just as a job, and whether the community understands that and supports those aspirations.

What was most impressive to me during this inquiry was the level of dedication of the teachers and principals whom we spoke to in the hearings and met during visits. I thank them and I thank the departmental officials, the university authorities and education stakeholders involved in the inquiry for providing the committee with valuable information and quite clear, sometimes blunt, advice and for pointing out some quite creative ideas that we ought to be passing on to government.

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