SCHOOLS should be given opportunities to take more control over their future, according to school viability group chairman Royce Fairbrother.
The School Viability Reference Group report was delivered to Education Minister Nick McKim yesterday.
Mr Fairbrother said the report was the culmination of just over five months' work and made eight recommendations seeking to make any school closure process fair.
The report says that any process to close schools must be consultative and include both an annual school self-assessment and a formal assessment.
``We found that schools wanted more opportunities to have some control over their own destiny with these things and we think that if you put in place an annual process that schools can provide input in that, it would be some help to them,'' Mr Fairbrother said.
It would also be a process in which councils and the broader community could participate.
The report's three central recommendations are for a review of school boundaries and catchments, a review of enrolment and attendance guidelines and a review of transport.
Other recommendations relate to criteria for assessing school viability. The report includes enrolment benchmarks - listed as ``a starting point'' - for schools classified as either urban or rural.
The benchmark for rural primary schools is 100 full-time enrolments. It is 200 for secondary rural schools and 200 for combined.
Urban benchmarks are 150 enrolments for primary schools and 300 for secondary and combined.
Mr Fairbrother said all the recommendations should be implemented in full and as a matter of urgency.
Mr McKim released the report publicly just an hour after receiving it.
He said it was not the death knell for small schools but a wake-up call to government to be more consultative.
Mr McKim would not make detailed comment on either the recommendations or when or which schools might close in the future.
He said he would consider the report and then provide a submission to cabinet before a government response was released.
He could not say when this would be.
Mr McKim said some of the recommendations would require extra money in the budget.
In her last day as the Australian Education Union Tasmanian branch president, Leanne Wright said that every child should have access to a public school and if they did not within their local area, then the school should not close.
And she said if a government school was to close, its facilities should not be sold to a private school for its improvement.
``The AEU believes it is very important every child has access to a local public school and that they remain a viable choice for parents,'' Ms Wright said.
The report can be seen at www.education.tas.gov.au
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