Merging senior schools need more cash: Union

The NT Government is short-changing the Centralian Middle School in Milner Road and the Centralian Senior College in Grevillea Drive which are due to merge soon.

This is the view of the Australian Education Union NT. It says spending for infrastructure, currently $500,000, needs to be increased.

The union says in the next two years, "hundreds of additional students will be crowded onto the MS campus, losing access to the facilities at SC while it undergoes redevelopment as a trade training hub.

“The recently announced acquisition and development of the school oval will reduce space for future growth,” states a media release.

It raises these shortcomings:

• A school hall and library that are too small to accommodate additional students.

• Computer labs, a home economics kitchen and science lab that cannot accommodate a full class of 27 students.

• Ageing air conditioning that struggles to cool effectively in summer.

• A lift that often breaks down, and one upper floor with no lift access at all.

• Small and dark classrooms created by walling off open-plan flexible learning spaces.

• A lack of breakout spaces for small-group learning and additional support.

• A noisy and congested breezeway that provides the only access between buildings and insufficient parking for additional staff.

The statement says the majority of current MS and SC students are Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander, and over 40% come from non-English backgrounds.

“These students deserve equitable access to quality school infrastructure.

“There are over 1,700 students enrolled in public primary schools in Alice Springs, but fewer than 700 in the two public high schools.

“The Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority’s My School data shows alarming levels of socio-economic segregation between the town’s public and private secondary schools.

“The new Alice Springs College should be a school of choice for all families in the region.

“In a climate in which millions have been spent on truancy officers and hundreds of millions to upgrade prisons and build work camps, why has the same financial commitment not been given to invest in the young people of Alice Springs and build them the school they can be proud of and deserve?”

PHOTO from the Centralian Senior College Flickr photo stream.