Grievance Debate

SOUTH AUSTRALIAN CERTIFICATE OF EDUCATION

Mr PISONI (Unley) (15:19): Back in February, I asked the Minister for Education about when there would be a review or evaluation of the new SACE, and she would not answer that question, knowing full well the answer. The minister said, 'All will be revealed,' and what we saw the next day was an article on the front page of The Advertiser with the heading of 'SACE Review'. Interestingly, we saw another front page headline this morning that concerned many students, teachers and parents whose children recently completed the new SACE or alternatively are planning to do so in the next few years.

There is a lot of concern in the community and in schools about the new SACE. Submissions to the new SACE for the first year evaluation for a number of suburban high schools have revealed major faults and unintended consequences of the new SACE under this Labor government. The School of Languages, Adelaide High School and the Mathematical Teachers' Association, as well as 11 western suburbs secondary schools, have all given poor marks to major elements of the new SACE.

These schools expressed serious concerns about the compulsory nature of the research project, having the personal learning plan as a stand-alone subject, and a lack of consistency in the evaluation process. Of course, as the opposition spokesperson for education, I have been raising these concerns in the media and in the house for many, many months.

As a person who does, in fact, make himself available to members of the community, and as someone who is in touch with the education community, these issues were raised with me very early on—probably within a few months of the introduction of the new SACE for year 12 students last year. I thought it was interesting that the education minister was confused about when the new SACE began; she said it began in 2011 when in fact it began for year 10 students (the first cohort of students to participate in the new SACE) in 2009.

The consistent message being delivered in the evaluations by these schools is that the new SACE gives students less choice and has led to a decline in students studying languages and humanities. Labor has spent $70 million—the minister claims it is only $54 million; what's a few million dollars between friends? A lot of money has been spent in order to deliver this SACE.

The high school submissions raise an obvious question: why did the government choose to spend this money developing the new high school curriculum for South Australia while, at the same time, the rest of the country had begun work on a national curriculum? The minister says the national curriculum and the high school certificate are two different things, but let's look at a major point that was raised by the School of Languages. There are fewer opportunities for students to actually study languages, which are an important part of the national curriculum, in addition to humanities and the arts.

In 2008, 59 schools offered accounting compared to only 39 schools in 2011, with only half the number of students studying the subject last year. There were 10 schools offering Australian and international politics, and there are now only five. Australian history was taught in 18 schools in 2008 compared to eight schools in 2011. Classical studies was offered in 32 schools in 2008, and it is now only offered in 26 schools. We had 36 schools offering economics in 2008 compared to the 23 schools we have now.

Geography was taught in 85 schools in 2008, and it is now available in only 32 schools, with a reduction of student numbers from 1,137 students in 2008 to only 343 last year. Legal studies, which was previously taught in 67 schools, is now offered in 52 schools. Modern history has also faced a significant decline in a number of schools as has philosophy.

There are currently no schools in South Australia which offer Chinese for beginners in 2011, yet the subject was being taught in two schools three years earlier. I think that is an important point that we need to raise, because one of the aims of the new SACE was to connect with Asia, and here we have our Asian languages being decimated, along with every other language and humanities subject. I seek leave to insert this statistical data into Hansard, Madam Speaker.

Leave granted.

Comparing 2008 Year 12 data with 2011 Year 12 data:

Accounting: schools: 59 to 39; students: 1008 to 557

Australian and International Politics: schools: 10 to 5; students: 158 to 73

Australian History: schools: 18 to 8; students: 178 to 109

Classical Studies: schools: 32 to 26; students: 440 to 341

Economics: schools: 36 to 23; students: 609 to 287

Geography: schools: 85 to 32; students: 1137 to 343

Legal Studies: schools: 67 to 52; students: 1084 to 665

Modern History: schools: 108 to 87; students: 1559 to 1089

Philosophy: schools: 10 to 6; students: 149 to 89

Tourism: schools: 88 to 52; students: 1701 to 720

Chinese Beginners: schools: 2 to 0; students: 8 to 0

German Continuers: schools: 39 to 18; students: 218 to 137

Indonesian Beginners: schools: 3 to 1; students: 20 to 15

Indonesian Continuers: schools: 12 to 6; students: 66 to 35

Italian Continuers: schools: 27 to 16; students: 179 to 139

Japanese Continuers: schools: 35 to 20; students: 180 to 145

Biology: schools: 170 to 149; students: 3542 to 3133

Chemistry: schools: 148 to 127; students: 2313 to 2086

Geology: schools: 8 to 4; students: 104 to 35

Physics: schools: 145 to 117; students: 2164 to 2014