Year 7 Teacher Recruitment Program

Mr BOYER (Wright) (14:58): My question is again to the Minister for Education. Can the minister advise how many of the 5,024 teachers currently on contract in the state's schools could lose their job because of the year 7 recruitment program?

The Hon. J.A.W. GARDNER (Morialta—Minister for Education) (14:58): I thank the member for his question. It is an interesting question, because we are now providing more opportunities for permanency than there have been in any single year that I am aware of. There may well have been a drive at some point in the previous government, but I'm not aware of a time when the previous government took on such a net increase within one year.

I remember when we had put into the 2018 budget that the ongoing cost of year 7 going into high school would include what was then estimated at $40 million a year because of the cost of the extra teachers who would be put into high schools, because you have more teachers per student in high schools than in a primary school.

The Labor Party at the time described it as 40 million more reasons to oppose moving year 7s into high school because they opposed, one can only presume, spending $40 million extra on more teachers in our public schools, which struck me as odd I've got to say. This side of the house has been arguing for year 7s to go into high school for many years for a number of reasons, not just because it fits in with other states and the national curriculum but because we believe that our year 7s are ready. They are a year older than they were previously.

When I was in school, the age at which year 7s are now were indeed in year 8 and in high school. We believe that they are emotionally mature, and that has of course been the experience in every other state and in our pilot schools and in the other sectors and in the R-12 schools and area schools that already have it. The children are ready, the students are ready and they are going to be served well.

In relation to the teachers on contracts, I think I have said in both my answers today that this is an extraordinarily good opportunity for teachers who are on contract and who are concerned about where that contract is going year to year to year. It makes it harder to get a loan for a house when you are not confident of your employment going forward. It makes it insecure. We are providing wonderful opportunities for permanent jobs in education. We are going to have more teachers. We are going to have increased government spending on teachers in education. This is actually not just in isolation of year 7.

When we signed the National School Reform Agreement a couple of years ago, that also required extra investment not just by the commonwealth of billions of dollars into our state public schools but also an extra $700 million over 10 years by our state government. That's going into more teachers, more investment for school, more support services for school and a dramatic uplift in the order of tens of millions of dollars in support for students with disability, which has provided jobs not just for teachers but also for expert SSOs and other support services staff.

In relation to the contract teachers within primary schools, two opportunities are coming. The first is the one that is open today. Many of those teachers are able to apply for the thousand jobs that are going to be increasing in our secondary schools next year, and what we have heard is that hundreds of them are keen on doing so. The second group where there is an opportunity depends on how many permanent primary school teachers apply for these jobs in secondary schools.

We know that a hundred are already locked in, and we expect that there is probably going to be quite a few more—potentially dozens more, potentially hundreds more—through this current round of calls. What is entirely possible is that there will be new permanent positions available in primary schools going forward as well. That's why we are doing the high school contracts now, the high school call now, and indeed the primary school calls will be happening in term 3 so we have a solid understanding of how many teachers are moving from primary school to high school, and that will be a great opportunity for many.

There are, as I said previously, some opportunities right now. The Aldinga Payinthi College and indeed Riverbanks College in Angle Vale are recruiting primary school teachers right now, as are schools on the APY lands. Primary school teachers interested in that permanency position have some opportunities now and they will have more opportunities in term 3.