Mr MILLS - 1999-08-11
Earlier this year he placed advertisements in Northern Territory newspapers calling for comments in relation to the development of a framework code of student behaviour. Can he tell the House of the response from the public, and report on progress in developing the framework?
ANSWER
Mr Speaker, I thank the honourable member for his question and for the support that he gave following the announcement. He was quite typical of many high school and primary school principals, not only in the government system but also in the non-government sector, which I think speaks volumes for the way we in the Territory work with the three education systems.
Honourable members may remember that in this House on 24 February I did announce my intention, to open up for public consultation the introduction of a students’ code of conduct that would allow a broad framework of student behaviour and acceptable standards applying to all schools, while still allowing those schools to have enough flexibility to go about their daily business in their own unique ways.
It was unfortunate that, at that stage, the member for Stuart criticised the concept before it was even explained. And there was division in the ranks there, because the then member for Wanguri was quite vocal in his support in this place, as honourable members who remember that question on that day will recall. While the division on the other side in this place was disappointing, in the community there has been overwhelming support, almost unanimous support, for the introduction of such a measure.
I can to report to honourable members on the progress made and some of the items discussed. As recently as last night, at a school council meeting I attended in one of our major high schools, they volunteered to be a trial school for any measure that we were looking at introducing. This is the sort of cooperation that we have been able to embrace throughout the Northern Territory. It is unfortunate that the opposition has chosen to disenfranchise those people that they represent.
Some of the issues that have come up, and the issues that will be addressed in this overall framework, are the bullying of students, the possession of drugs and weapons within schools and classroom disruption, while allowing enough flexibility for individual schools to do their own thing. We found that many schools have very effective policies already. But we also found that there are a number of students who ‘school-shop’, so to speak. They’ll test the bounds of one school and if they overstep the mark they’ll try their hand at other schools. In many cases those other schools have had to take these students, knowing full well that they’ve had priors.
What we’re about is protecting teachers and protecting the majority of students within the school system who are trying to do the right thing and they are, in fact, the majority. The estimates that we’ve had from experts are that of approximately 42 000 students, at any one time at least 40 000 are trying to do the right thing. Unfortunately, it is that small remaining group that at times does cause problems.
I can report to this House that we will be very shortly releasing the draft code of conduct into schools as we promised we would do, before the end of this year. It should happen this semester. I place on record my personal thanks to all the stakeholders who have taken part in this and all the school councils that have discussed this at their level.
It is a shame that the opposition has chosen to oppose this. It’s not too late to have a change of mind. It has been demonstrated on numerous occasions this morning that the opposition has been prepared to make a 180 turn on other positions, and I invite them to do that in this case. The measure has the support even of the AEU(NT), the teacher’s union, who have said that while there are some potential funding implications, they support broadly the concept. They support it, the schools support it, the stakeholders support it. So far we’ve only been able to find one person effectively who doesn’t, and that is my opposition shadow.
I again issue the invitation. Have a change of opinion on this to reflect the views of the community and the views of your constituency. Work in cooperation to improve what we already have in the Northern Territory, which is an excellent school system. We intend to make it even better.
ANSWER
Mr Speaker, I thank the honourable member for his question and for the support that he gave following the announcement. He was quite typical of many high school and primary school principals, not only in the government system but also in the non-government sector, which I think speaks volumes for the way we in the Territory work with the three education systems.
Honourable members may remember that in this House on 24 February I did announce my intention, to open up for public consultation the introduction of a students’ code of conduct that would allow a broad framework of student behaviour and acceptable standards applying to all schools, while still allowing those schools to have enough flexibility to go about their daily business in their own unique ways.
It was unfortunate that, at that stage, the member for Stuart criticised the concept before it was even explained. And there was division in the ranks there, because the then member for Wanguri was quite vocal in his support in this place, as honourable members who remember that question on that day will recall. While the division on the other side in this place was disappointing, in the community there has been overwhelming support, almost unanimous support, for the introduction of such a measure.
I can to report to honourable members on the progress made and some of the items discussed. As recently as last night, at a school council meeting I attended in one of our major high schools, they volunteered to be a trial school for any measure that we were looking at introducing. This is the sort of cooperation that we have been able to embrace throughout the Northern Territory. It is unfortunate that the opposition has chosen to disenfranchise those people that they represent.
Some of the issues that have come up, and the issues that will be addressed in this overall framework, are the bullying of students, the possession of drugs and weapons within schools and classroom disruption, while allowing enough flexibility for individual schools to do their own thing. We found that many schools have very effective policies already. But we also found that there are a number of students who ‘school-shop’, so to speak. They’ll test the bounds of one school and if they overstep the mark they’ll try their hand at other schools. In many cases those other schools have had to take these students, knowing full well that they’ve had priors.
What we’re about is protecting teachers and protecting the majority of students within the school system who are trying to do the right thing and they are, in fact, the majority. The estimates that we’ve had from experts are that of approximately 42 000 students, at any one time at least 40 000 are trying to do the right thing. Unfortunately, it is that small remaining group that at times does cause problems.
I can report to this House that we will be very shortly releasing the draft code of conduct into schools as we promised we would do, before the end of this year. It should happen this semester. I place on record my personal thanks to all the stakeholders who have taken part in this and all the school councils that have discussed this at their level.
It is a shame that the opposition has chosen to oppose this. It’s not too late to have a change of mind. It has been demonstrated on numerous occasions this morning that the opposition has been prepared to make a 180 turn on other positions, and I invite them to do that in this case. The measure has the support even of the AEU(NT), the teacher’s union, who have said that while there are some potential funding implications, they support broadly the concept. They support it, the schools support it, the stakeholders support it. So far we’ve only been able to find one person effectively who doesn’t, and that is my opposition shadow.
I again issue the invitation. Have a change of opinion on this to reflect the views of the community and the views of your constituency. Work in cooperation to improve what we already have in the Northern Territory, which is an excellent school system. We intend to make it even better.
Last updated: 09 Aug 2016