Coronavirus, Schools

Mr BASHAM (Finniss) (14:45): My question is to the Minister for Education. Can the minister provide an update to the house on how South Australian schools are making progress towards a COVID-safe environment, and is the minister aware of the progress of approaches in any other jurisdictions?

The Hon. J.A.W. GARDNER (Morialta—Minister for Education) (14:45): I thank the member for Finniss for the question and I know that he has a particularly high level of interest in this. He was very supportive at the beginning of term 2 and through the school holidays in encouraging the students in his area to get back to school, and indeed sharing the advice that Nicola Spurrier and the public health officials provided to students, to staff and to the South Australian community on the low-risk environment that schools represented.

Term 2 has indeed been an extraordinarily positive experience in many ways for many South Australian students and families. From about the second or third week of term 2, we have been back up to 90 per cent attendance in our schools in South Australia. The educational development of our students and young people in South Australia, which we greatly feared might be challenged by the coronavirus pandemic—they have had very limited interruption to that as a result of the pandemic.

There were home-schooling arrangements put in place and supporting our students very quickly, but of course we know that face to face is best. Very few South Australian students have suffered prolonged absence from school. That hasn't been the case in other jurisdictions around the world; it hasn't even been the case in some other jurisdictions around Australia, which I note the member asked about. I will come back to that.

Today, we are particularly pleased to provide the public—our schools, our students, our teachers and their school communities—with information about the further release of restrictions that are coming at the end of this month for the last week of term 2 and which will hopefully be in place throughout term 3 and term 4.

This is a release of restrictions on things which, while they might not have been the primary educational activities going on in our schools, nevertheless are the sorts of activities that make school the experience that we want it to be: things like school assemblies that help our schools gel together as a group; things like sporting carnivals, school discos, the interschool choirs and camps and band opportunities; and the opportunity for class photos. These things make the school experience as good as we want it to be.

These things will now be able to take place once again in our schools in South Australia. We are leading the way, and not just in the nation. Western Australia and Northern Territory are close to us and the other states on the eastern seaboard are slowly catching up, but we are in fact doing very well by world standards and our children, our young people, are the beneficiaries.

We are also really pleased that parents and volunteers are increasingly going to be welcomed back to our school campuses, which I know many will be glad of. Playgroups will be coming back. It is very important through this, of course, that if our families, our children in particular, and our staff are unwell, they stay home. This has always been the case in workplaces and schools, but it is very, very important now. Hopefully, the use of that good hygiene and the discipline to stay home if you are sick will start being very much the norm everywhere. It is very important in this environment.

As I said, not every state is the same. I note that there are some interstate politicians who have been feeling a bit febrile and a little bit feisty in the last couple of days. I've no doubt that if they have children at home, that might have added to their anxiety. In New South Wales and Victoria, for months on end everybody has been working from home and that is very testy.

New South Wales had an unusual return to school. Some students were back on certain days for a period. Some students were told they would be able to come back one day a week or two days a week, maybe when the moon was high or the moon was low. I'm sure that sort of activity has probably had an impact on the New South Wales Treasurer, for one, in terms of his anxiety.

In Victoria, of course, we actually have the Grattan Institute expressing some concerns about the length of time that so many of their students were out of school. Indeed, they are now looking to return to school. South Australia is here. We are leading the nation in our schooling activity and our children, our young people and our school communities are so glad about the term 2 they have had. It has been hard work, but my goodness, our children have been the beneficiaries.