Today’s (Thurs, June 16) state budget foreshadowed closure of 20 Tasmanian primary and district high schools, 16 of them in rural areas. This has alarmed the Tasmanian Farmers and Graziers’ Association, which says the impact on rural communities will be disproportionate to the four schools facing closure in the cities.
“You have to look beyond school numbers before targeting those schools that are deemed dispensable,” TFGA chief executive Jan Davis said today.
“Primary and district high schools throughout Tasmania are more than just the place farmers send their kids. They are integral to the community. If you take them away, you take away perhaps the very reason that people decide to settle in the country and pursue farming as a career. Local schools are integral to rural communities and the businesses that support them.”
The schools that Education Minister Nick McKim has nominated for possible closure extend from Stanley and Edith Creek in the far north-west, to Bracknell, Westbury and Fingal in the north and Dover and Glenora in the south.
“Glenora District High, for instance, is the hub of the Glenora/Bushy Park community,” Ms Davis said. “Everyone is involved in after-school activities, parents and friends and on-the-job experience on the farm for the students.
“Its closure or downscaling would be a dreadful blow to the whole district, one of Tasmania’s most productive growing areas. Vineyards are joining cropping, beef and fat lamb production throughout the Derwent Valley. With climate change, we are told that this is one of the areas that will burgeon in the years ahead.
“Areas such as Glenora have few alternatives available for farmers to send their kids to school. Where there are alternatives, it usually involves long journeys.”
Rural Tasmanian communities are already seriously disadvantaged. Closing schools will only add to the barriers rural families face in maintaining a reasonable standard of living.
She said the TFGA would make immediate representations to Education Minister Nick McKim to avert unnecessary or ill-conceived closures.
• Hit-list schools fight back
DANIELLE McKAY | June 20, 2011 12.01am
BATTLE lines will be drawn this morning as thousands of Tasmanian students return from holidays — many to schools that face closure at the end of the year.
Impassioned students, parents and whole communities are formulating campaigns to protect their schools from the Government’s fire sale as it attempts to fill the state’s empty coffers.
Emergency Parents and Friends meetings are being organised, petitions circulated and mass protests organised, all in a bid to protect the urban and rural schools from closure.
Social website Facebook has become a popular platform to rally support for more than one third of the 20 schools identified on the Government’s hit list.
Hundreds of Tasmanians have joined the Save Our School sites created for Glenora District High School and Collinsvale, Bracknell, Mole Creek, Meander Valley and Stanley primary schools.
The pages are filled with impassioned pleas from past and present students and locals who fear their town won’t survive without the school.
More than 300 people have rallied behind the Save Franklin Primary School page in less than four days.
Mother-of-eight Saahza Hensley, who has been involved with Franklin Primary for 16 years and still has children at the school, helped set …
• Other Budget reaction …
7.30Tas
Published: Friday, June 17, 2011 7:37 AEST
Expires: Thursday, September 15, 2011 7:37 AEST
We revisit our forum participants for their views on the budget.
And
Peter Gutwein interview
Published: Friday, June 17, 2011 7:42 AEST
Expires: Thursday, September 15, 2011 7:42 AEST
The Shadow Treasurer joins Airlie Ward in the studio.
