Page 1201 - Week 04 - Wednesday, 6 April 2016
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One has to ask: if the estimates for this year are incorrect, how much worse are they for 2017? On all likely outcomes, things can only get worse as more housing comes on stream. Knowing that, what is the government doing about it? We can all be wise after the event and none of us has a crystal ball. But as a starting point we need to be honest with the electorate, with parents who move to new areas believing that there will be a placement for their child. Indeed, the directorate and their minister make that commitment to Canberra families, as they should.
But for how long will this be able to continue if we do not have a major infrastructure plan? One has to ask: what cost are educational outcomes likely to suffer? We know that many schools have long ago given up their dedicated music rooms and their language rooms to accommodate additional classrooms. We know that class size is no longer a focus of attention because, irrespective of what might be the ideal size, the harsh reality is there is no other option but to maximise class size when required.
But what else is the government doing? What messages are being provided to parents? How did they get the numbers so wrong? We only have to look at preschool numbers across a number of schools this year to see that there is a significant problem now or pending in many of our schools across a number of networks. We are told that schools census data and capacities, land release data, sales data and occupation dwelling forecasts sourced from Treasury, birth data from births, deaths and marriages, population estimates from the Australian Bureau of Statistics, and external demographic analysis are used. So if all that is available, where is the error?
Presumably apartments and housing in some of the newer suburbs were intended for single or double-income couples without children when, in fact, it is families that are buying in these areas. But, learning that, what steps has the government taken to relieve the school pressure?
I think Canberra families need to be assured that there is a place for their child at an ACT public school now and into the future. I have spoken in the past about the promise made in the last election by the minister to deliver $70 million in new money to upgrade Canberra’s older schools. I know that to date very little has been committed and even less spent. We are not spending money on upgrading schools. We are not building enough schools, or none fast enough, to cater for families in new suburbs and we know that even in older areas where schools were closed in 2006 and 2007 there is now pressure for more space.
We also know that there is no financial assistance through a loan scheme or similar for the non-government school sector to assist them in meeting demand. The new Catholic senior school at Nichols, the Good Shepherd-St John Paul II College campus, was a marathon exercise in negotiations to get started. Already that area could do with more schools, with 146 enrolled this year in year 7, while the Good Shepherd Catholic Primary School at Amaroo and the Good Shepherd Primary School-Mother Teresa Catholic Primary School campus at Harrison have between them enrolments of 1,346. Amaroo public school is similarly large with over 1,000 enrolments, while Harrison Junior School is bursting at 1,244 when it has a notional capacity of 1,050. Neville Bonner school is another with large preschool numbers this year.
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