Education System

The Hon. J.A.W. GARDNER (Morialta—Minister for Education) (15:19): I am really pleased to have the opportunity to talk to the house about some of the investments that the government has been making in educational projects and importantly some of the outcomes that are being achieved. I am interested to hear from the shadow treasurer that the government stimulus projects are not supported by Labor because he says that the debt is too much, the borrowings are too much. The pandemic obviously has not occurred in the minds of the shadow treasurer and the Labor Party.

Of course, the level of debt and the level of investment in this budget are commensurate with the challenge at hand. I also note that the Labor Party's blinkers are clearly well and truly on when they say that none of the projects promised under this government or announced in budgets have happened. There are literally hundreds of projects in the education department alone that have been commenced and completed in the last couple of years.

This year alone, we announced 380 programs in preschools for maintenance opportunities and more than 100 extra school maintenance projects. Tens of millions of dollars have been invested in projects where shovels have been in the ground, paintbrushes have been on the walls and roofing tilers have been on the roof (I do not think that one is going to catch on). The work has been done, the jobs have been delivered and those preschools and schools have been upgraded. That has been an outstanding outcome for those schools, those preschools and those students.

When we think of the young people of South Australia, we want a couple of things. We want them to be safe, well, protected, cared for and looked after when they are at school, preschool or in any childhood setting, in any service setting. We want them to get a great education. We want the facilities that they are in to have the dignity they deserve to give them the dignity they deserve, and we want the delivery of the content—whether it is the curriculum, the project or the service—to be of a very high quality.

We want it to have an impact on their future. We want them to be able to achieve throughout their lives in the areas that draw their passion, that impact their love. It is absolutely a commitment of this government to give our children those opportunities and give them what they need so that they can succeed in life. I talked a little bit in question time about literacy and numeracy, and I want to talk a little bit more about that.

During 2018, the South Australian government delivered the first phonics screening check to all government students in year 1 across the state. It was the first time that had been done across a whole state ever. I note that the hundreds of schools in South Australia that have now done it three times, since the third term of 2018, are being joined by more than a thousand schools across Australia who are taking up either the New South Wales and Tasmanian governments' trial or the commonwealth's free voluntary phonics screening check for schools.

They are doing this because they can see the dramatic impact it is having in South Australia on the teaching of literacy, the teaching of reading and writing, in our schools. Phonics is not the only thing. It is not a silver bullet, but it is one of the six key things that enable every child—not just those children who are doing well without the support but every child—to have the best chance of learning to read, to be able to decode the language so that when they are confronted with text they have not seen before they are able to form that word and read that word. Then, when they get to more complex texts, they can enjoy them because they can understand them.

In 2018, after 16 years of Labor, the government was confronted with a schooling system where everyone was working very hard and they were doing their best. There were people working with love and with passion in their hearts to support their children, but there was no consistent understanding of the best way to teach kids to read, so we had only 43 per cent of our students in year 1 meeting the 28 out of 40 expected achievement for our children in South Australian schools.

That lifted to 52 per cent in the second year, and this year it was very pleasing to announce a couple of weeks ago or maybe last week that that had lifted again to 63 per cent. There is still much more work to do, but it is a dramatic step forward from 2018 when we came into government. Those results have surprised many teachers and principals across the system, and that has led to them having a look at the science of reading, what works in schools and what has worked in other schools. They have changed their practice. Schools are now working on whole-school literacy approaches.

We have had professional development, which the government has provided and which teachers have warmly embraced. We have given them the TRT time to enable them to do that professional development and do the checks. Then, for the 37 per cent of students who are not at the mark where we want them to be, we have also provided the opportunity for them to get that specialist intervention. There is so much more to do but, by goodness, our education system is on the right track, and I am so proud of our teachers and our schools in South Australia.

Time expired.