Educator Kevin Farrell offers plan for schools following MRHS separation

Former educator Kevin Farrell, who has over 50 years of experience in schools both as a teacher and principal, foresees issues that could arise as a result of the demerger and has offered his guidance on how they could be avoided.

"I have positive suggestions for the post-demerger of the schools, both in terms of organisational issues and in bringing Griffith's kids back to Griffith High and Wade," Mr Farrell said.

He believes the way forward is to design each site as a 'specialist' school.

"Griffith High School should be designated as Griffith STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths) and sports high school, while Wade should be designated as Wade Creative Arts and Languages High School," he said.

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"This would give the schools immediate special identities that Griffith youngsters and the community could latch onto.

"It would require the NSW Government to provide special consideration for staffing and for facilities to match the special roles that the two high schools would have.

"It would also signal that the Government acknowledges the disastrous merging of the schools - documented in the University of NSW's evaluation report - had caused major damage to the provision of public high school education in Griffith and had imposed costs on parents that needed to be compensated for," Mr Farrell said.

He also believes the government should take urgent action to ensure the schools are fully staffed to compensate for the "huge impact of teacher vacancies and lessons lost over the past five years."

"I'm asking for support for my suggestion from parents and community members in the Griffith region," Mr Farrell said.

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