Luke Hartsuyker (Cowper, National Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I wish to take this opportunity to draw attention to the state of affairs at the Lowanna Public School in my electorate, which is facing the removal of its library and a primary classroom—an action which will severely affect the school’s pupils. Lowanna is a small isolated town in the hinterland of Coffs Harbour, which is the nearest settlement of any size that can offer a full range of facilities. Lowanna is some 45 minutes drive from Coffs Harbour, much of it on steep narrow country roads.

The school currently has 16 pupils aged between five and 12. As in many small country towns, the school is a focus for the community—not just educating the children but also bringing parents and members of the community together in social activities. The library and primary classroom are currently housed in two demountable buildings. The New South Wales government intends to remove these demountables on the grounds that pupil numbers have fallen. It is my contention that the crude link that is being made between numbers and the buildings takes no account of the educational consequences of these actions, which are particularly short sighted in an isolated community such as Lowanna.

Let me start with the library. Schools not only equip our young pupils with the basic skills they need to lead their lives but they have a vital role to play in helping our children place themselves in the wider world. There is much to be said in favour of growing up in a small, secure rural community like Lowanna. There is also much to be said in favour of the learning that goes on in the broader sense beyond the hills and forests that surround Lowanna. We must ensure that our young children are not disadvantaged by having their early years of schooling in small country schools. Books can provide that sense of perspective that is needed in education. I shall come to the effect the state government’s proposal will have on the use of computers in the school shortly, but I believe books offer students a permanent, physical, extended form of another person’s views, experience or imagination in ways that computers cannot. A school without books is a school without a soul. If the demountables are removed the books will have to be stored, new shelving will have to be purchased, the books will be not on display and pupils will not be able to browse, to select what takes their fancy or to experiment with books. They will not have access to a public library or a bookshop in the small community of Lowanna. They will be deprived of part of their education.

The library is also a space that is put to other uses which enhance the life of the school. It is the only sizeable space available for reading groups, choir lessons, teaching of sensitive topics such as sex education, assemblies involving the whole school and visitors, and visiting exhibitions to which the pupils would not otherwise have access. It is used for fundraising activities by both the P&C and the student council. It has been used until now for the annual combined Orama Valley schools great debate. If the two buildings are removed, the school will no longer be able to host the event at Lowanna. It has also been used for rehearsals by the school’s primary dance troop, which for the last two years has won its class at the Coffs Harbour and district eisteddfod and performed to acclaim at other cultural festivals. Those are the consequences of the loss of the library.

The loss of the primary classroom will mean that the primary and infants classes will have to share a single room, though clearly they will not be sharing lessons, with obvious consequences for the learning experience and providing students with greater opportunities for distraction. This will limit discussion and it will limit personal growth. I am informed that the school’s computers will have to be removed to a separate room, being taken out of the children’s classroom. In the classroom they can be integrated with the lesson and used for specific purposes in a wider task—in short, used as a tool, as a means to an end. Taking them out of the classroom will, I believe, encourage the view that the computer is a plaything, a source of entertainment and an end in itself. Of course, a computer can be those things, but I think it is vital that the computer be used and integrated into the classroom situation.

The decision by the state government is mean-spirited, small-minded and, I think, illogical. The figures available from the last census show that the population in the area around Lowanna is increasing, not decreasing. Of course, the latest census figures have yet to come out, but I am sure we will see a continuation of that growth. No doubt someone in the state government has looked at the probably minimal savings and running costs, and the costs particularly involved in removing the classrooms down a very steep and winding road. I would hope that they would have thought carefully about this decision, but it does not appear that they have. I have little confidence, unfortunately, that the state government will reverse that decision, but I am working very hard with the local state member, Andrew Fraser, to try and retain those classrooms to ensure that the children of Lowanna school have the very best possible educational experience. Taking away classroom resources from a small country school such as Lowanna is unacceptable in the 21st century. Those classrooms and the library should stay with the children of Lowanna.