Parents appalled at the Towards 2020 plan and ‘consultation’
From the P&C Council
Parents called for the Towards 2020 plan to be thrown out at a gathering of concerned parents and children last night convened by the Council. The meeting called on the Canberra community to join them in protest being organized by the Council.
Speakers at the meeting identified many flaws with the data being presented to justify the plan and were appalled and angry at the phony consultation process being used by the Government. There are grave concerns with the validity of the data and the adequacy of the process used to build the plan. The plan proposes a radical restructuring of education in the ACT and provides a motley range of educational offerings without consistency across regions, but offers no clearly stated vision or criteria or expected outcomes, apart from cost saving and no detailed explanation of cost savings.
President of P&C Council, Jane Gorrie reported that, “People believe that Canberrans have been fed misleading information by the Government. The community has been divided by the naming of specific schools but all schools would be affected by the massive re-arrangement of enrolment areas and adjustment of school sizes. It was reported that different communication has been directed at the different groups of parents. People urged all school communities and the wider community to ask detailed questions about what the real impact will be on their school and their community and on the wider Canberran society.”
Parents also reported that they are now being asked to nominate their choice of school in the case of closure of their current school, so the Department can do its planning. It was reported that one reason for this is to allow ordering and placement of demountables. Parents are appalled at the idea of their child leaving a permanent school building to be housed in a demountable, not to mention the costs conveniently ignored by Government.
People at the meeting could not match the process they have experienced with the requirements of the Education Act. The Act states that in deciding to close or amalgamate a school the Minister must have regard to the educational, financial and social impact on students at the school, the student’s families and the general school community. The consultation should also be open and transparent and lead to sustainable decisions by involving effective community engagement. The consultation must ensure that relevant information is provided in a timely and accessible way to enable maximum community participation in the debate.
People were also very angry at the lack of answers to questions. Apparently a turn around time of 28 days is what the Minister’s office is now aiming for, compared to an initial aim of 10 days. This was not considered acceptable or as providing data in a timely way. Information that has been provided has been incomplete or misleading.
Parents called on the wider community to support them and all affected communities to ensure the Government lives up to its mantra of honest and genuine consultation. A first opportunity to show disgust at the Government’s lack of genuine consultation is by attending the rally to be held this Saturday from 8-9 am at the Rydges Lakeside Hotel, corner of London Circuit and Edinburgh Ave, Civic, the site of the ACT Labor party’s annual conference. This is an excellent opportunity to show the Labor party members the lack of community support for the plan and the distress this proposal is causing to the communities involved.