Gungahlin
Secondary College - excessive delays in the provision of the full
set of K-12 public
schools for the Gungahlin-Hall district of the ACT
Gungahlin provides a classic example of a neglected and peripheralised
outer urban district. Here we are in the ACT - by far the most
educationally and financially advantaged of Australia's eight
States and Territories - and Gungahlin is not going to receive the full
set of K-12 public schools until its population is about that of
Wagga (NSW's most populous inland city).
The following
documents have been prepared to draw attention to this extraordinary
story of contemptuous neglect of a significant fraction of the ACT
population:
Submission to
the ACT Government Schools Education Council (GSEC) on
Future Directions in ACT Government Schools, dated October 2003,
recommending that a
Secondary College should be built in Gungahlin as a
matter of urgent priority
Australian
Bureau of
Statistics Evidence That Gungahlin Has Already Surpassed the "280 Year
11 Students" Hurdle Set by the ACT Government as a Requirement to Begin
Operations of a Gungahlin Secondary College, dated August
2005
Gungahlin
Secondary College – An Example of a Moving Target!, dated
November 2005
Fact
Sheet on
when Gungahlin Secondary College will have its First Year 11 and 12
Classes,
updated to January 2009, which indicates that Gungahlin Secondary
College will operate Year 11 classes for the first time not in 2010, as
promised for the past few years, but in 2011. It is acknowledged
now that the planners and builders need to be able to do their jobs
properly. Politicians are responsible for the excessive delays in
providing Gungahlin residents with the full set of K-12 public schools.
If Gungahlin
Secondary College operates Year 11 classes for the first time in 2011,
that will be a full four years later than Burgmann Secondary College
operated its first Year 11 classes in 2007.
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