Mr AH KIT - 2000-08-17
One-third of children at Ngukurr Primary School in my electorate suffer from hearing problems and need special education support. Three months ago, the minister’s department reviewed special education across the Territory and decided that children such as those at Ngukurr needed only four days of special education support per year. Does he agree with the report recommendation that four days of support is enough for these children, or will he have the courage to seriously address the pressing special education needs in Northern Territory schools?
ANSWER
Mr Speaker, I applaud the member for Arnhem for staying awake long enough to ask a question. The issue of special education and medical intervention with health …
Mr Ah Kit interjecting.
Mr LUGG: Do you want the answer? Does the member think this is flippant?
It is a question of medical specialist assessment. The staff in my department make assessments of these problems. The truth is it is almost a bottomless pit in terms of what you could do if you had all the resources to do it.
A lot of special education issues come out of the Student Services Branch and we work together with Territory Health Services. We have just conducted a review of student services and the report will be released very shortly. Basically it does include an overhaul of areas like that. I am of the belief that we can do things better there. But whether we will be able to do all the things … I am not aware of that particular recommendation. Generally, since I am not a doctor, I leave it to the medical specialists.
As part of a wider review of how we can help Territorians get a better education …
Members interjecting.
Mr SPEAKER: Order!
Mr LUGG: They are prattling on again. They obviously think education is unimportant, but every parent out there thinks it’s particularly important.
What we try to do in education is deliver the best education we can with the resources available. I would like to have more resources but the reality is you can’t do everything. You have to make allocations. For instance, we are redeveloping the hospital. We do better than most other jurisdictions, I might add, in this country. People when they come to the Territory continually say that government schools are so much better resourced than down south, the services available are so much more extensive than down south.
In specialist areas, we take specialist advice.
ANSWER
Mr Speaker, I applaud the member for Arnhem for staying awake long enough to ask a question. The issue of special education and medical intervention with health …
Mr Ah Kit interjecting.
Mr LUGG: Do you want the answer? Does the member think this is flippant?
It is a question of medical specialist assessment. The staff in my department make assessments of these problems. The truth is it is almost a bottomless pit in terms of what you could do if you had all the resources to do it.
A lot of special education issues come out of the Student Services Branch and we work together with Territory Health Services. We have just conducted a review of student services and the report will be released very shortly. Basically it does include an overhaul of areas like that. I am of the belief that we can do things better there. But whether we will be able to do all the things … I am not aware of that particular recommendation. Generally, since I am not a doctor, I leave it to the medical specialists.
As part of a wider review of how we can help Territorians get a better education …
Members interjecting.
Mr SPEAKER: Order!
Mr LUGG: They are prattling on again. They obviously think education is unimportant, but every parent out there thinks it’s particularly important.
What we try to do in education is deliver the best education we can with the resources available. I would like to have more resources but the reality is you can’t do everything. You have to make allocations. For instance, we are redeveloping the hospital. We do better than most other jurisdictions, I might add, in this country. People when they come to the Territory continually say that government schools are so much better resourced than down south, the services available are so much more extensive than down south.
In specialist areas, we take specialist advice.
Last updated: 09 Aug 2016