Page 1743 - Week 05 - Wednesday, 4 May 2011
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . . Video
task force was recently evident in the highly successful student summit on cyber safety, entitled “Who R U in the digital world?” It was attended by more than 200 students from across all ACT high schools.
The summit, held on 18 March, was an event that empowered and equipped students and teachers with the skills to be safe in a digital environment. And it was, I believe, a terrific representation of what the school sectors can achieve when they work together on a common goal—in this instance, focusing on supporting students. We will continue to seek and support these important partnerships between our public, Catholic and independent schools. The next example of this is later this month with the international day of action against homophobia, and we are inviting students in years 10, 11 and 12 from all ACT school sectors—public, Catholic and independent—to attend a major summit in relation to that important issue.
In the ACT student numbers amongst the different sectors, or market share if you like, have been one of the closest of all jurisdictions. As Mr Doszpot indicated in his contribution, data from the February 2011 ACT schools census shows that there were just over 39,000 students attending public schools, 13,786 in independent schools and 13,348 attending Catholic schools. This distribution of students clearly makes collaboration between the sectors even more important.
It is important to note, though, in looking at the break-up of students within the three sectors that our public schools have the largest enrolments of students with special needs and the largest enrolments of students from Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander backgrounds at 1,848 and 1,283 respectively. Independent schools, the census shows, have 99 students identifying as Indigenous and 224 with special needs. The Catholic system has 187 students identifying as Aboriginal and 276 students with special needs.
The government has delivered record funding in this budget to Catholic and independent schools in the ACT. Over the term of this government, funding for our Catholic and independent schools has increased from $29.6 million in 2001-02 to nearly $50 million in 2011-12. This is an increase of approximately $20 million, or around 66 per cent, which is, I note, well above CPI increases over this time.
I acknowledge, though, that funding is an important issue for schools and for governments, and the ACT is no different from any other state or territory government in this country. The ACT government will continue to promote engagement with the commonwealth review of funding for schooling, to which all Australian governments have agreed.
The review, known in shorthand terms as the Gonski review, marks the first time since 1973 that funding arrangements for all schools have been reviewed in such a holistic fashion by our national government. The review is being held to ensure funding for all schools is fair and transparent, financially sustainable and effective in promoting excellent educational outcomes for all Australian students.
The ACT government is preparing a comprehensive submission to the review of funding of schooling. It is currently being finalised, so I will not be pre-empting our
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . . Video