Education System

Mr PISONI (Unley) (14:34): My question is to the Minister for Education and Child Development. Does the government stand by its election promise to retain grade 7 in education department primary schools?

The Hon. S.E. CLOSE (Port Adelaide—Minister for Education and Child Development, Minister for the Public Sector) (14:34): Here we go discussing this again. The election commitment—I don't recall the detail as I wasn't the spokesperson at the time, but I will say that we have absolutely no plans to force year 7 into secondary school. There is no evidence that has been presented to me that indicates that that would make an overwhelming educational difference. I'm well aware that the curriculum was designed both for primary and secondary environments.

I come to it with an open mind, in the sense that I do think we should be driven by evidence and we should see what the true impact is, particularly given that we know how much it will cost to do that and it won't just cost a lot of money to do it. Clearly it will cost a lot of money if we are going to force all schools to do that, but it will also cause strain on some of our smaller schools, particularly small country schools where year 7 means that there are enough kids in that school to make it viable and removing year 7 might not, which would be a source of trouble, at least to me, if they were to force schools into a position where they could be closed.

What I do think is important is that in our system we allow a high degree of choice. Increasingly, we have schools, I think there are something like 71 schools across South Australia, that allow children to go from either birth or reception through to year 12, which means that in those schools you can have the experience of middle school. In my own electorate there is Ocean View College, which is formed from two previous schools, Taperoo High and Taperoo Primary School, and what they have done is have a middle school that starts in year 6. Now, I don't suppose anyone is proposing that year 6 ought to be wrenched into secondary school, but it creates a natural middle school in a larger context.

We have put on the table voluntary amalgamations for schools. In some cases that may be two secondary schools together or two primaries together, but equally it could be a primary and a high, therefore forming that continuous link. So, my view is that we maintain a position that, as much as possible, parents should have a choice about where they send their kids. A lot of children that I'm aware of are in primary schools that end in year 7 and yet there are these schools that allow children to go all the way through to matric, not far away. So, it seems to me highly desirable that parents are in a position to make that kind of choice.