ROBBIE Katter has called on the Queensland Government to invest in an ageing learning facility in a growing town of the North West.
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The State Member for Mount Isa said the divide between the quality of infrastructure at rural and city schools was evidenced by a space in Cloncurry.
“Cloncurry State School needs urgent upgrades to bring its science lab up to modern standards,” he said.
“It’s simply inexcusable for our kids to be working in a building of this age and standard. Quite simply you wouldn't have this school on the coast or in Brisbane.
“I’m calling on the Government to step in and ensure our rural students aren’t left behind because of a lack of basic requirements.”
Mr Katter said funding was required to improve the learning experience for Cloncurry State School students.
“There’s some important work to be carried to ensure the environment is suitable for an engaged learning experience.
“I’ll be working to make sure our smart minds of the North West have access to quality infrastructure to give them every chance to develop into our next generation of highly-educated scholars.”
New FIFO laws could help the town increase its number of families, and bumping up numbers at the school.
“There’s big potential for Cloncurry to capture the opportunity for a potential increase in students, especially with Dugald River mine ramping up and new FIFO laws ensuring more local workers in the town,” he said.
Mr Katter hopes the Government can assist the school to better its science labs for current and future students.
The call for the science lab upgrade came the same week that the Australian Education Minister announced his embarrassment by the "appalling results" of the nation's students in the latest international maths and science tests.
The 2015 results from the Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS) showed Australian students decrease in the rankings, with Kazakhstan and Slovenia students overtaking our country.
“I think they're appalling results,” Education Minister Simon Birmingham told ABC radio on Wednesday.
“I am embarrassed for Australia that we are not performing at the standard that we would expect our schools to perform.”
The 2015 TIMSS test looked at how well year four and year eight students had mastered maths and science, asking questions like how many legs an insect has and what the angles in a triangle add up to.
The results showed that since 2011 Australian students have: Slipped 10 places in rankings for year 4 maths (18th to 28th), Made no progress in year 4 science (steady at 25th and Dropped five places for year 8 maths (12th to 17th) and science (12th to 17th).
