Page 4690 - Week 13 - Tuesday, 10 November 2009
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . . Video
MR DOSZPOT (Brindabella) (10.35): Mr Speaker, there is no argument that ACT students need to be given every opportunity to better participate in the increasingly competitive job market, and keeping our youth in school-based or vocational training is an important and logical way to achieve this. The opposition will be supporting the bill before us today, and I will take the opportunity to thank Dr Jim Watterston, the CEO of the Department of Education and Training, and Ms Jocelyn Vasey, also from the Department of Education and Training, for their time yesterday. I was very interested to hear their perspective on how the bill will affect the day-to-day running of schools, the recruitment and training of specialist teachers, the interaction with partner organisations and also the impact it may have on business and industry groups.
I have also discussed this initiative with many stakeholders in the education sector, and whilst it is difficult to argue against the broad principle of giving our young people every possible chance—certainly within the education sector there is no opposition to this initiative—there are some concerns about the finer details surrounding the implementation of such a change.
We are encouraged by the statistics that show the ACT already has a high participation rate in relation to other jurisdictions—in fact, the highest—and that the aspirational target set down by the minister will, therefore, not be an unrealistic goal for the ACT to achieve. However, I will take this opportunity to again voice the opposition’s concerns and remind the government and the department that there will never be a one-size-fits-all model, and that certain sectors within the community do need to be afforded extra attention in those crucial years between 15 and 17.
During the public hearings of the inquiry into the achievement gap, we heard about the issues facing young people who have disengaged from a learning environment altogether who will, no doubt, fall through the cracks at either 15 or 17, whenever the school leaving age is. These are young people who are already lost to the system but who may have a thread of hope and opportunities through the services that are provided by some innovative support organisations. The government must ensure that agencies and support providers, such as Gugan Gulwan and Galilee, to name just two, are funded and supported in a timely fashion in their efforts to assist those students who are most in need.
We heard during the achievement gap inquiry, for example, that Gugan Gulwan has no guaranteed funding stream from year to year, which makes it near impossible to plan programs and offer the security of a place to students and, indeed, to retain staff whose dedication is stretched to the absolute limit as they wait anxiously to see if their hard work in engaging with these students is going to be maintained or whether lack of funding will mean abandoning these students at a critical stage of development.
The commendable program at Canberra college, CCCares, aimed at young parents, which was featured on a WIN news story recently, is another example of programs that are preventing at-risk youth from disengaging from a learning environment. This is a valuable addition to the education landscape of the ACT.
The pressure on these organisations will undoubtedly increase, and it is imperative that the whole-of-government approach so widely heralded by this government is
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . . Video