Page 3114 - Week 08 - Thursday, 25 June 2009
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I commend my colleague Steve Doszpot for the work that he has done on lobbying for non-government schools to be included in the review into special needs. In the last few weeks I have had the privilege of visiting a number of schools for Bubble Day, Autism and Asperger ACT’s program to boost awareness of autism spectrum disorders, and it was pretty inspiring to see some of the great work that is happening in our schools with regard to this program.
In particular I found my time at the Cranleigh school in Belconnen quite inspirational. There would have been about 30 to 50 students in the assembly that I visited. I am guessing that there were about 15 or so teachers and carers. There would have been another 15 or 20 parents there, all looking after about 50 students. They were having a fantastic day and a fantastic week celebrating Bubble Day.
It does show the importance of making sure that all students, regardless of whether they are in the government sector or the non-government sector, are receiving the care they need when it comes to special needs. I will conclude on that. I urge the minister to take on board the recommendations of the estimates committee, and especially recommendation No 93 calling for a breakdown of funding to non-government education.
Friday, 26 June 2009
MS HUNTER (Ginninderra—Parliamentary Convenor, ACT Greens) (12.01 am): The Minister for Education and Training indicated in the estimates committee hearing that the $28 million commitment to lower class sizes across all years in ACT public schools and colleges is the centrepiece of the education and training budget. The commitment is to reduce numbers to an average of 21 students in primary and high schools and 19 students in colleges. We are concerned about how he will go about implementing this. From the responses received in estimates from Ms Davy, the acting departmental head, and others, it appears that getting this right will be a major task. The estimates committee share this view and in their report on page 135 noted they were not convinced that the minister would be able to meet this policy objective.
Some schools will continue to operate with less than the average class numbers and others with more. Indeed, the committee has made two recommendations in relation to publishing information outlining class sizes, including the number of classes which exceed 21, 25 and 30 students. The amount of $28 million represents a significant investment in this centrepiece of the minister’s budget. There is a need to ensure the target is achieved and appropriate strategies developed to assist those schools which have classes that fall outside the average with class sizes of the levels outlined by the committee.
There is an investment of $6.4 million over four years to provide specialist teachers to work with other teachers to support students with literacy and numeracy issues. We understand that part of this funding is a result of our commitment under the national education agreement to improve literacy and numeracy levels across Australia. Any additional resources in this area are welcome. The ACT is recognised as having the highest literacy levels of all jurisdictions. With this in mind, it is important that these
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