Save Tharwa School

From ABC News

ACT Education Minister Andrew Barr has faced tough questioning in a Budget estimates committee about the Government’s plans to close up to 39 schools.

Mr Barr’s Labor colleagues were among those putting the Minister under scrutiny.

In justifying the closures, Mr Barr told the estimates committee the community generally accepted there was a need for change within the system but no one wanted it to affect their own school.

He also ruled out selling land the schools were on, saying it would be kept for community use.

Mr Barr got little support from his Labor colleagues on the committee, with Wayne Berry arguing teachers should be allowed to protest the closures if they wished.

Mr Barr said teachers must comply with their professional code of conduct but could do what they wanted in their own time, and some had already spoken out.

He also denied suggestions the Government had not collated data about the impact of closures on the public education system, although he agreed no formal risk analysis had been done to determine the effects of the closure.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, June 28th, 2006 at 3:55 pm and is filed under In the Media. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.