Page 824 - Week 03 - Wednesday, 2 April 2008
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they did not have enough resources. It is simply not possible in a primary school of 60 students to have a dedicated PE teacher or a dedicated arts teacher. You have a small staff, four or five teachers in a school of that size, who are expected to offer an entire school curriculum. It is just not possible. So the government took the difficult decision to rationalise resources to prioritise quality. When we look at the survey data for why parents are moving away from the public system the number one factor is quality.
Coming in at No 2 is the reputation of the school, and then also featuring for one in four was the quality of school facilities. That school movement survey data has been public for nearly a year now. The government has responded to that data by prioritising quality. Our $350 million investment in infrastructure, matched by a range of new recurrent initiatives in pastoral care and Indigenous education, in PE, in arts and in music are all aimed at improving the quality of our public education system. That has to be a feature of where our debate in education should be heading. It is about quality.
That is why I have put forward a paper to establish a school standards authority to raise the quality of education across the ACT. That is why the government is participating in the national testing regime that will commence in May of this year. That is why the government is investing additional resources in early intervention and early childhood education.
This government funded an increase in free preschool hours from 10 to 12, and as a result of that we have seen a significant increase in enrolments in preschools in the ACT. If you want to look for a sign of where targeted government investment will turn around the enrolment drift away from public schools, I point to preschools. There has been an 11 per cent increase in public sector preschool enrolments in the last two years. We were going backwards in 2004 and 2005, we held steady in 2006, and in 2007 and 2008 we have seen an 11 per cent increase in enrolments in public preschools.
We have established a new curriculum framework that incorporates the preschool year. We have amalgamated preschools into our primary school structure. That provides greater professional support for our preschool teachers. We value early childhood education. We are investing in additional resources for early childhood schools. That is a crucial investment in the future of our public education system. Linking preschools to primary schools was a very important strategic move to ensure that we have education continuity and greater professional support for preschool teachers. If you want to look at an area where this government will be driving a further reform agenda in partnership with the new federal government, it is early childhood education. It is crucial to the future of our public education system.
What I find interesting in the opposition’s motion is, for the first time, some support for the new P-10 school in west Belconnen. So it is interesting that, having made the blanket statement that all school closures should stop, Mr Seselja has now in this motion for the first time agreed that the west Belconnen school that will form out of the Holt and Higgins primary schools on the former Ginninderra district site now has the support of the opposition. I welcome that three years later.
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