Page 4142 - Week 11 - Thursday, 17 Sept 2009
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The report makes a number of findings and recommendations. The findings included that while there was a need for reform and that some positive benefits had arisen from the Towards 2020 reform process, the public discussion required for such a major adjustment of the ACT public education system did not meet the standard required for genuine consultation. The committee found that without prior indication that a substantial change to the ACT education system was required, the need for such extensive reforms were not expected or well understood by the ACT community.
The consultation criteria were not clear to members of the community and consequently many believed that the reforms to the school system were solely motivated by the ACT government’s financial concerns. Based on the evidence provided by many members of the community who will be most affected by these changes, the consultation process resulted in a number of negative impacts on the community.
The committee finds that there were inconsistencies in the evidence base supporting the Towards 2020 reform proposal, including adequacy of the assessment of the social impact, appropriate school size, veracity of the demographic and other statistical information, and vocational outcomes.
The committee finds that while having accepted the minister’s position that the requirements of the Education Act in relation to the closure of a school were met, good public administration principles would suggest that a major restructure required a more strategic community engagement process.
The committee also found that the provisions in the Education Act were not adequate for a major restructure of the education system as was undertaken as part of the Towards 2020 program. The committee believes that a more sophisticated public administration approach to sustainable public schooling is required—one which includes a citizen-centred approach to decision making about the services that most affect people’s lives.
I would also like to read out a number of the key recommendations from the report. The committee recommends that the delays associated with the heritage assessment of the Flynn primary school site be investigated by the ACT government and resolved as soon as possible. The committee recommends that the ACT government urgently liaise with the representatives of the John Flynn community group or other members of the Flynn community to negotiate the viability of alternative proposals for the closed school site.
The committee recommends that the democratic rationale of the citizen-centred governance model be incorporated into the government’s community consultation and engagement guidelines and that it should report to the Legislative Assembly on the progress. The committee recommends that the ACT government develop comprehensive public guidelines for the conduct of public social impact assessments for any closures or amalgamations of ACT schools and similar high impact government services decisions.
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