Schools close for rally against cuts
Eight schools in Kwinana and Rockingham closed on Tuesday to allow teachers to make their voices heard at the Community Day of Action against education cuts.
Rockingham and Kwinana teachers were due to join thousands of school staff and parents at Langley Park at 10am before marching up St Georges Terrace and rallying outside Parliament House in the afternoon.
Teachers joined forces to fight the loss of almost $4 million in funding to the region as the State Government cuts back in preparation for its student-centred funding model.
Safety Bay Senior High School State School Teachers’ Union representative John Brame was due to join more than 40 staff at the rally.
“It is not just in regard to class sizes increasing and workload issues, it is about the quality of education we can give being totally diminished by what is going on,” he said.
“They are playing with the lives of the kids — I personally feel that public education is suffering and the kids who deserve a fair go aren’t going to get it.”
Warnbro MLA Paul Papalia said parents were right to be deeply concerned about the cuts.
“Parents at Secret Harbour Primary school say that music and arts programs at their school are going to be severely impacted,” he said. “I’ve been told seven teachers at Comet Bay Primary have lost their positions.”
Kwinana MLA Roger Cook said parents in his electorate were concerned about the impact on education quality and extra-curricular activities and programs.
“At Gilmore, they are ripping out more than $440,000 — you just can’t take that much money out of the system without it having a detrimental effect to the quality of education. It is outrageous.”
Before the rally, Education Minister Peter Collier said he was disappointed with the strike action.
He said it was a complete disruption to students.
