ADELAIDE ELECTORATE

Ms SANDERSON (Adelaide) (15:36): I would like to speak on the topic of educational issues and the lack of capacity throughout the Adelaide electorate. I will start by congratulating the year 12s from Adelaide High School on their outstanding results. Eight students received a perfect score, with one receiving merits in two subjects.

Twenty-two students received four As, 22 received three As, 29 received two As and 69 received one A. Furthermore, 27.5 per cent of the cohort (43 students) received an ATAR of 90 or above. As of 19 January, 89 per cent of the students received a first-round offer from a tertiary institution, and 63 per cent of those received their first choice offer. So, congratulations to all of the year 12s at Adelaide High School.

To give you a bit of a rundown, between 2002 and 2006, during Labor's first term in government, various attempts to engage DECS state office were made by Adelaide High School, in collaboration with the Sturt Street and Gilles Street primary schools, for options to relieve enrolment pressures. During Labor's second term of government in 2006, a feasibility study of acquiring space in a UniSA building at 160 Currie Street was undertaken and documented, but not proceeded with. Throughout 2007 continuing discussions were held with DECS regarding enrolment pressures, and, in particular, zone enrolments.

Following this, in 2007, the Adelaide High School Governing Council called a parent meeting to generate support for action. In 2008, after extensive and comprehensive community consultation, a submission was given to the then minister for education, Jane Lomax-Smith. This was completely ignored until four days before the 2010 election on 20 March, when the Labor government released a statement regarding the expansion of four state high schools. It stated:

Adelaide High School...will be expanded to cater for up to 250 more students from 2013...

I note that the school year for 2013 has already begun, and there is no sign of any building. I believe some fire hydrant work has commenced, but the earliest they are looking at having that completed is the end of 2015, ready for the 2016 term; that is very behind deadline. The other promise was that this would be built without encroaching on the Parklands, which is also completely untrue, and that has been extended completely onto the Parklands. Another quote from that statement was:

By expanding the schools, we can relax the zones—so that students from Prospect or Walkerville, for instance, will be able to attend Adelaide High School.

Again, we are three years on and three education ministers on, and still there has been no notification of that expansion of zones. This is a particularly important issue for all of the residents living in Prospect and Walkerville in particular. There are not only issues with being able to go to the closest local high school; Adelaide High School by gazette, does not even have to accept students who live in its zone. In fact, in 2009, it was gazetted that:

...enrolment of students at Adelaide High School must be consistent with the following criteria, requirements and conditions:

The applying student:

1. Must be enrolled in a South Australian Primary School at Year 7 level at the time that the student applies to enrol at the Adelaide High School (through the Year 7-8 transition process administered by the Department of Education and Children's Services) and must, in addition to this criterion, meet one of the following criteria:

(i) the student's family's primary place of residence is located in the area bounded by—

and then it has streets and suburbs. It then states:

The student's family's primary place of residence must be within this zone at the time of the Department of Education and Children's Services Year 7-8 transition process, which concludes in week 4 term 3.

So you have to live there in week four of term three of year seven, and be enrolled in a state primary school already or, if you move in at any other time you cannot go to your local high school. Point (v) of this gazetted note says:

Nothing in this policy requires Adelaide High School to grant enrolment to a student if the school has reached its capacity.

So, even if you live in the zone in year seven of the correct time period, you are not guaranteed a space in the school. So, clearly, there is a lot of pressure on Adelaide High School to provide adequate schooling.

Time expired.