Government must provide resources and certainty for Freo schools

Fast Facts:

  • Chaotic amalgamations process has created high level of uncertainty for Fremantle parents and students
  • Schools must be adequately resourced
  • No money allocated for school amalgamations in State Budget
  • Fremantle Labor MP Simone McGurk has called on the State Liberal Government to ensure that Fremantle high schools are adequately resourced, ahead of a community meeting with Premier Colin Barnett and Education Minister Peter Collier tonight.

“Fremantle students and parents have been justifiably unsettled regarding high school amalgamations since the Education Minister Peter Collier announced them last year,” Ms McGurk said.

“The least they should be able to expect is an iron-clad commitment from the Minister that local schools will receive the resources they need.”

Ms McGurk said there was strong community support and logic for a Gifted and Talented Extension (GATE) academic excellence program to be part of the newly formed school.

“Including an academic excellence program as part of the new school makes sense on a lot of fronts.

“It would bring a strong cohort into the new school, boost student numbers and enhance subject selection,” she said.

Ms McGurk also called on the Government to allocate the required resources for the amalgamations process, after Planning Minister John Day admitted in Budget Estimates that school amalgamations were not cost-neutral.

“The State Government has allocated no funds for school amalgamations in the Budget, so it needs to come clean on how it intends to fund it.

“Schools are already struggling under the massive funding cuts to education.

Once again we are seeing the Government scrimping on public schools, leaving local parents and students with a high level of uncertainty about what will happen to this crucial area of their local community,” Ms McGurk said.

“It is absolutely essential that this Government realises that the Fremantle community is demanding that any change to secondary schooling in Fremantle is greater than the sum of its parts,” Ms McGurk said.