Page 1976 - Week 05 - Thursday, 3 May 2012
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DR BOURKE: Stop the clocks.
MADAM ASSISTANT SPEAKER: Yes, I am quite happy to stop the clock. Minister Burch and Mr Coe should refrain from exchanges across the chamber.
Ms Burch: We will.
MADAM ASSISTANT SPEAKER: I will hold you to that, Minister Burch.
DR BOURKE: Let me just clarify for Mr Coe. I am sure he has not actually listened to a word I have said for the last couple of days about support for Catholic independent schools in the ACT and the particular state that they had been left in by the previous Liberal government. But let me address what he said about running down public education. Over the seven-year period 2005 to 2012 the ACT government invested $650 million into ACT public schools in infrastructure works—not only in constructing new schools but in capital improvements to existing schools in every school in every part of the territory.
The future of education in the ACT is very bright. The ACT outperforms all other jurisdictions across all school and post-school sectors on many key indicators of quality and performance. Building on this success, the ACT government continues its commitment to delivering reform in education. As Minister for Education and Training I am determined to ensure even higher quality services and even better outcomes for students in the future. I am confident that every Canberran will have access to the best possible schooling and life learning experiences. My government’s investment in the school and tertiary education sectors supports an excellent forecast for education in the ACT.
The key to high performing students is the quality of their education. The ACT government are committed to ensuring ACT students have the best teachers. We have committed $11.8 million over four years to ensure we continue to attract and retain the very best teachers to public schools by recognising the best teachers sooner, promoting them faster and paying them more.
Students learn best in a supportive and personalised environment. We have invested $28.7 million over four years for an extra 70 teachers to support and nurture our students in public school classrooms. These teachers have reduced class sizes. Our student to teacher ratios are among the lowest in the country. We are investing $1.6 million to free up teachers so that they can spend less time on administration and more time either in the classroom or preparing for the next day’s lessons.
We support teachers to build their expertise in indentified areas of need through the teacher professional learning fund of $1 million each year. Teacher scholarships enable teachers to develop and refine their skills to improve student learning. These equate to $250,000 a year. Since coming to government in the ACT, Labor has a history of providing additional funding to the non-government sector, Mr Coe, for new computers, for capital infrastructure, for disability services.
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