The closing of Duval High School brought much anxiety to our town.
How was a huge school built at the Armidale High site going to possibly work? Putting the entire town’s public high school students together was just asking for trouble in my opinion.
Two public high schools enabled students and families to have a choice…that choice was taken away. Many students adapted well to the new environment but many more did not.
Now there is a large cohort of high school aged students completing their years 10, 11 and 12 at TAFE. While this is great for TAFE, we are unable to offer the complexity and variety that a high school can, therefore students are missing out on this.
I believe housing developers have been a large part of closing Duval High right from the start. They can make a lot of money out of turning the site into yet another new residential area.
I propose that the state government revamp and re-open Duval as either a year 7-12 high school again or even as a Senior College of years 11-12. This would take a lot of pressure from the Armidale Secondary College as they would havre much fewer students, resulting in a more practical environment.
As a community Armidale and the surrounding areas must consider the future of public education in our town, therefore students deserve to be a part of that consideration in any decision made about the Duval site.
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