Opposition out of touch on education

Education and Training Minister Rod Welford said Opposition Leader Lawrence Springborg’s “new” education policy demonstrated he was out of touch with what was happening in Queensland schools.

“A key plank of the Opposition’s first attempted policy announcement is to give parents a greater say in school discipline by allowing them to determine behaviour codes for their child’s school in consultation with the school principal,” Mr Welford said.

“If the Opposition bothered to do any research and consultation before releasing their ‘policy on the run’, they would know that a Code of School Behaviour was introduced by our Government in 2006, with each school already developing its own Responsible Behaviour Plan in consultation with parents.

“These plans provide clear guidelines for principals, teachers, students and parents about what types of behaviour are unacceptable in the school and the consequences for misbehaviour.

“The plans give principals the utmost authority to deal with unruly behaviour in their schools because the plans have been developed in consultation with parents.

“Likewise, the Opposition’s proposal to provide ‘rehabilitative classes’ for troubled students is merely a replication of our Government’s successful Positive Learning Centre program where students have short-term spells at these centres before being allowed back into mainstream classes.

“Unfortunately, their $2 million commitment to provide them in 50 new centres across the state is considerably under-budget.

“Construction of the 50 centres would be at least $20 million on school sites, not taking into consideration the extra costs of purchasing land if they needed to be built off-site, plus ongoing costs such as depreciation, maintenance, and other operational expenses.”

Mr Welford said the Opposition’s other proposal was to increase teacher numbers in order to reduce class sizes in the early phase of learning.

“Our Government is committed to rewarding the teachers we already have so they can continue to improve on delivering education to our students,” he said.

“Our class size targets are already among the lowest in Australia.

“What will make a more significant difference is our commitment to early childhood education. With the introduction of Prep, increasing the school starting age and more kindergarten places for children, we’re bringing our children into line with other states in these important early years.

“The Bligh Government has a plan for the future - not duplicated, poorly-researched, economically irresponsible policies. Now is not the time to be making things up as you go along – we can’t risk Queensland’s future, and most importantly, the future of our children.”

Media contact: Marnie Stitz on 0419 734 985