Education Reforms
Thursday, 25 March 2010 10:15
Education Reforms
Dr FLEGG (Moggill—LNP) (11.53 am): I want to speak about the woefully inadequate discussion that the government has participated in in relation to the huge reform of moving grade 7 into high schools. We are talking about 40,000 students in grade 7 in state schools, around 1,800 grade 7 teachers whose futures will be in question and thousands of classrooms. Where are we going to get the supplies of specialist high school teachers? It will have a severe impact on the private sector.
In particular, this government has a head-in-the-sand attitude about our children being younger when they enter high school than those children entering high school in the other states. Children can often not be ready for the less supported environment of high school. The government has not even mentioned the need for teachers and parents to assess children to ensure that our children get the support they need. We need to know where individual children are at in their development and maturity if we are going to push them into high school so young. There has been no mention of that in the government’s discussion paper.
In regional Queensland there are areas where we are seeing good cooperation between local high schools and their feeder schools, but nowhere in the government’s discussion paper does it even canvass the idea of middle schools as an option. It should be an option to be considered, particularly where we have P10 or P12 schools.
This amounts to meaningless consultation. To be meaningful, the government must deal with notjust capital works but where we will get new high schools and the risk of closure of depleted primary schools. There is no mention of recurrent expenditure to fund this move, the readiness of students, the future of 1,800 grade 7 teachers, the availability of specialist high school teachers and the role of middle schooling.(Time expired)