Coronavirus, Education

Mr COWDREY (Colton) (14:44): My question is to the Minister for Education. Can the minister update the house on the progress of our schools and students returning for term 2?

The Hon. J.A.W. GARDNER (Morialta—Minister for Education) (14:45): I thank the member for Colton for the question. I know that he cares, as members across the chamber do, very deeply about ensuring that our students and young people in South Australia get the best possible start in life. Education is an essential service. It is absolutely critical and foundational to the successes that our young people are able to have in life.

I think it has been reduced sometimes in some elements of the public debate in recent weeks to a manner of being able to look after children so they are not preventing parents from being able to work. That is an impact of education—schools being open for the economy—but the main purpose is to ensure that our young people get the best possible start in life. The best possible education gives them the best opportunities for job outcomes, for health outcomes, for mental health outcomes, for success and happiness in life.

Education is so important and the best place, the best environment, if possible, if it complies with health advice, for our students to get that education is in a school where they have access to teachers and where they have access to the specialist learning environment that our schools are set up to provide. Our teachers are providing that critical, that essential service to our community and most importantly to our young people every day. I think never more importantly than when the young people are dealing with the enormous challenges and upheavals that the coronavirus presents, it's a great opportunity for them to get their education, and when they're at school it is also a wonderful opportunity for them to re-engage with their other friends, the other young people who are in school.

I met some young people at the Westport Primary School yesterday, who were coming into school and who were just beside themselves with joy that some of them who had not seen their friends in six weeks face to face were going to be able to get that opportunity. They joined with 63 per cent of students in the schools that were open yesterday. I caution the house that that figure does not include, of course, schools in the Barossa, which have been closed as part of a cluster according to our protocols. Those schools have been following the health advice and they are reopening tomorrow, which is very exciting for those schools.

There are also a number of schools that had one of their regular scheduled pupil-free days yesterday, as indeed a number of schools had at the beginning of term. We had 63 per cent attendance at our schools, 25 per cent learning at home and 12 per cent absent. That 12 per cent absent figure is a figure of some concern, not to be necessarily unexpected, not to be alarmed by at this stage, but it is a figure that we are keeping a very close eye on. Of course one of the reasons it's so important for our schools to be open is because there are too many vulnerable children in our community and for many of those vulnerable children being at a school is often the safest place they can be. It may be an opportunity for them to get a breakfast and potentially even a lunch as well. So, of course, a number of those students we would be very keen to look out for and ensure they don't fall through the cracks.

The face-to-face learning opportunity experienced by those 63 per cent of students is great. This is going to be a complex week. Of course, it's an environment that four weeks ago we could have only been dreaming of as a state, that we would see such little levels of community transmission. But, of course, we were preparing for something else. It's great news for our state that we have such low levels of the coronavirus, it's great news for our health, but it is a significant challenge for our teachers.

We know the first thing is the health advice. The health advice is clear that schools are safe, they are a low risk environment and that's something the government has been consistent on. The second issue is how do we best deliver that education. In a school like Westport, where 90 per cent of the kids were there, it's easier than in some other schools where it's more even. This week, I am asking all parents to be patient with schools, patient with their teachers as we transition through this complex environment, but I pay tribute to our teachers and our principals, who have worked their guts out over the last month and who will continue to do so because they care, as do we all about the best interests of our children.