NSW: Schools will close but govt will consult: dept

AAP General News (Australia)
04-30-2001
NSW: Schools will close but govt will consult: dept

SYDNEY, April 30 AAP - The NSW School Education Department today confirmed school closures
were inevitable but said it would pursue the restructuring of high schools with as much
consultation as possible.

Education Minister John Aquilina is due to make a statement early next month on plans
unveiled in March to close or restructure several inner Sydney schools.

The proposal has been met with anger by parents and teachers who are staging a series
of protests to voice their opposition to the moves.

Education department director-general Alan Laughlin today said comprehensive co-educational
schools in inner Sydney had lost 4,000 students over the last eight years and the system
needed to be fixed.

"What we have is a system that has to be changed," said Mr Laughlin.

He said given falling enrolments schools would have to shut down anyway.

However, he said the government was prepared to listen to concerns about the nature
of the final restructure and did not rule out extending the consultation period, due to
wind up at the end of May.

"We're listening to what people want," he said.

"The non negotiable part is that change has to occur and that we cannot sustain the
current number of schools with the very parlous student numbers we have.

"If we can get ideas from people, views from people, we will adapt them, I can assure you."

Under the $110 million plan, eight new schools would be created including two single
sex and one Aboriginal specialist school.

Three secondary colleges focusing on senior students or with links to universities
will be created as well as two schools for students with learning difficulties or from
non-English speaking backgrounds.

Hunters Hill and Maroubra High Schools will close while Vaucluse will be merged with
Dover Heights and Marrickville will be amalgamated with Dulwich Hill High School.

Alexandria, Erskineville, Redfern and Waterloo Public Schools will amalgamate and relocate
to the site of Cleveland Street High School.

The report said school sites at Vaucluse, Hunters Hill, Chatswood, Marrickville and
Maroubra would be sold.

AAP jjs/rp/mg/bwl

KEYWORD: SCHOOLS LAUGHLIN

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