The ACT college reform plan (''Plan to split college system'', October 22, p1) is a brilliant idea and if implemented will solve a lot of community angst concerning youth unemployment and job opportunities.
It will benefit the ACT economy no end because, under the current college education system, far too many youth employment opportunities are being wasted.
For example, the ACT construction industry has failed miserably when it comes to providing vocational training and apprenticeships to the scaffolding, steel-fixing, concreting and crane-crew trades that make up 60 per cent of typical construction work.
Not only would a vocational education system in our college system give our young people a leg up into the construction industry, it would be a much safer system than the current learn-on-the-job situation, where a 16-year-old school leaver can find work on a building site with the minimum four hours safety induction training, and no idea as to what to do.
We should get behind Education Minister Andrew Barr and support our young people by providing them with the opportunity for a trade-based education in the ACT college system as, let's face it, we all can't be public servants or rocket scientists, but given the opportunity we can find useful and meaningful employment outside of academia.
Dave Cavill,
Kambah
Andrew Barr's latest foray into education reform fills me with dread.
He freely admits that the ACT has an excellent college system, but seeks to change it on the grounds that some students are falling through the cracks.
Before my retirement I taught in ACT high schools and colleges for more than 30 years.
At the college level I taught at all levels (tertiary, accredited and vocational). Students at college could choose to specialise at any level, or mix and match to suits their needs and interests. Many chose to mix and match, and profited greatly from the ability to make that choice.
I contend that Barr's latest proposal will surely lead to a narrowing of student choice and learning experiences. To cater for those falling through the cracks the educational opportunities of the vast majority of students will be compromised.
Thirty years of teaching experience has led me to believe that most students who fall through the cracks choose to do so. We should not fiddle with a fine system that has served ACT students so well.
Paul Morton,
Weston
Andrew Barr's vision on the college system is an appalling one.
Why would we want to split our young adults into socioeconomic, class and interest groups at a young age?
It's a centuries-old draconian way of thinking and does nothing to facilitate diversity of thinking and beliefs in our youth. I have a child in Year 8 and one in Year4 and this backward vision of where and who with they end up in life is disturbing.
At the very least this is un-egalitarian and un-Canberran.
Mary-Anne Brownlie,
Narrabundah
BONHOEFFER REMINDER
Prime Minister Kevin Rudd has said that his favourite Christian theologian is the German Lutheran pastor Dietrich Bonhoeffer, who openly opposed the Nazi regime and was executed by them in 1945.
As he seeks to build a response to the increasing tide of asylum-seekers, I wonder if Rudd reflects on the words of Bonhoeffer: ''We must learn to regard people less in the light of what they do or omit to do, and more in the light of what they suffer.''
Perhaps Malcolm Turnbull should also reflect on these words.
No one who looks at the evening television news can doubt that these people are suffering.
How do we, as a nation, respond to their suffering?
Robert Willson,
Deakin
GET REAL ON REFUGEES
Barrie Smillie (Letters, October 20) is of the opinion that allowing in refugees will lower our living standards.
No doubt King John spluttered something similar to himself about rebellious lords and other rabble as he signed Magna Carta, and he would have been right, in the long term.
However, is it really the case that the opportunity to have a 100cm flat screen (produced by sweated labour in a distant country where workers' living standards are, to put it mildly, poor and constantly under pressure) outweighs the right of families to live at all? If people want to stem the flow (in our case, trickle) of refugees, then pressure the relevant governments to accept that those now fleeing have a right to life and wellbeing in the place where they were born.
Otherwise, get real.
Janelle Caiger,
Stirling
BARNETT AND FEAR
It is unfortunate that David Barnett (''Ruddock's performance a rare win for Opposition'', October 22, p21) uses the term ''ratlines'' to refer to the ''pipeline'' of would-be migrants to Australia.
It is also revealing.
Barnett's view of asylum-seekers, refugees and other assorted foreigners seems to resemble the Nazis' view of the Jews. Who can forget the Nazi propaganda film showing rats swarming through sewers and over rubbish dumps while the voice-over barks warnings about the Semitic menace?
If Barnett saw these people as human beings, he might be more sympathetic to their desire to escape the impossible situations in which they find themselves.
Michael McCarthy,
Deakin
For the enlightenment of David Barnett, Article 1 of the United Nations Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees defines a refugee as ''a person who owing to a well-founded fear of being persecuted for reasons of race, religion, nationality, membership of a particular social group or political opinion, is outside the country of his nationality ...''
Rather different from his version. Perhaps Barnett should refer to the authoritative source instead of his Liberal Party manifesto of ''The Politics of Fear''.
David Grant,
Murrumbateman, NSW
DEATH AND RELIGION
Jack Waterford's opinion piece on the choice between a religious or secular funeral (Times2, October 22, p2) was thought-provoking, but I found his recommendation to be trite: to get buried in a church just because the music is better seems to somewhat miss the point.
As we get older, many of us start to think about how we would like our deaths to be marked.
For many, I imagine, more thought goes into the wake than the funeral.
As an agnostic I have planned a secular funeral, as I think that it would be inapt to have a minister of a church whose doctrines I reject presiding over my funeral service.
At my funeral I would like some of my favourite songs played and my favourite poem, Tennyson's Ulysses, read.
Though my musical and poetic selections are not incredibly deep, I would like them performed, as they have left an enduring mark on me as I have grown older.
At the most recent funeral I attended the casket was carried out to the strains of Louis Armstrong's A Beautiful World. Waterford may have considered that song to be ''banal'' and not as uplifting as a Requiem Mass.
However, as it was the choice of the person whose life we were celebrating, it was perfectly appropriate.
Mike Reddy,
Lyons
Very interesting thoughts on death from Jack Waterford and Father Ed.
All sadly true. But why?
The decline of spiritual interest in death, and life, is no surprise really.
The subject of the Reformation was the struggle between the truth of the Bible versus man-made doctrines.
The church in England went with the Bible then, but later left it to follow after Darwin and has been in decline ever since.
No church is healthy without a close obedience to the Bible (properly taught) and no one wants to listen to waffle.
They can and do make up their own.
Mrs J. Halgren,
Latham
SENSE ON EMISSIONS
The present debate over emissions trading is the equivalent of the band members on the fantail of the Titanic arguing over what tune to play while the bow is slipping into the sea.
Sadly, our adversarial political system is incapable of dealing with real-world situations.
(I know from experience, having served in the Tasmanian Parliament and the federal Senate.) The problem is only partly political.
Either by design of the major resource companies (clean coal is the ultimate oxymoron, easily outstripping military intelligence) or because of the five-second sound bite and the lack of money for investigative journalism, the issue is vastly oversimplified.
The argument rages over whether or not climate change is real.
If it is, the rise of sea level is considered the chief concern in the public mind.
The sceptics claim that the models are not proven. Of course, they won't be until the predictions come true.
But there are facts out there.
The most frightening is the measurable build-up of carbonic acid in the ocean because of CO2 release since the start of the Industrial Revolution.
This acidity is already causing changes in the phytoplankton which are the base of the ocean food chain and which furnish 70 per cent of the world's oxygen.
The acidity will increase exponentially as we spew more and more CO2 into the air.
Politicians should take a deep breath (while they still can) and look up oceanic acidity in a search engine.
There are many other horror stories about how we are about to damage our planet to the point where it won't be able to support us.
Stop bickering, Kevin Rudd and Malcolm Turnbull our children deserve better.
Dr Norman K. Sanders,
Ocean Shores, NSW
With current weak action on reducing our CO2, sea levels will rise, flooding low-lying countries.
Then we will be dealing with millions more homeless refugees seeking asylum.
Will the conservatives be still blaming the Rudd Government? Only the Greens are taking the future of the country and planet seriously, the others are just bickering, fed by the media.
Japan and Norway have already set 40 per cent and 20 per cent reduction targets in CO2 ; why are Coalition allowed to get away with the'' we don't want to be first'' line?
Colin Handley,
Lyneham
AIRPORT BUS ROUTE
Colin Lyons (Letters, October 23) complains that ACTION bus services to Canberra Airport are poor in comparison with the airport service offered by Adelaide Metro.
But in Adelaide, the airport is located between the city and high-density suburban centres, meaning a frequent public transport service is viable.
In Canberra, the only high-density centre on the other side of the airport is Queanbeyan in NSW, so it makes sense that a private trans-border operator (currently Deanes) should provide the airport service.
Their round trip fare is $15, which distance-wise is comparable with the Melbourne Skybus return fare of $26.
I don't know why ACTION bothers to service the airport at all, or Fyshwick for that matter.
Paul Feldman,
Macquarie