Hearing Health

Ms BEDFORD (Florey) (15:15): My question is to the Minister for Education. What role does poor hearing, particularly through lack of attention to conditions such as otitis media, play in retarding and impeding learning in both Indigenous and non-Indigenous students?

The Hon. J.A.W. GARDNER (Morialta—Minister for Education) (15:15): I thank the member for the question. I am in an awkward situation, particularly in relation to the nature of the question, because I actually have a hearing aid; I am not wearing it today and couldn't quite make out some of the detail in the member's question. Can I respectfully ask that it be repeated?

Ms BEDFORD: What role does poor hearing, particularly induced through the lack of attention to conditions such as otitis media (inner ear infection), play in retarding and impeding learning in both Indigenous and non-Indigenous students?

The Hon. J.A.W. GARDNER: I thank the member for the question. It's obviously a very important body of work, particularly in remote Indigenous communities, where for a couple of decades now we have had research provided to the state government, I imagine, in the past. I recall I was working in federal politics in a different career at a time when there was significant work released that it is a significant challenge.

There are a number of strategies that educators and schools and the department take in terms of supporting students. Some of the work that is done includes taking, wherever we have new builds of schools, the acoustics very significantly into account. Indeed, a number of the new modern modular facilities that are now coming up in schools have, often as a standard piece of their infrastructure, acoustic loops and the opportunity for enhanced auditory capability to be taken into account.

It's one of the challenges in school infrastructure, particularly some of the 1960s and 1970s builds, where they were seeking to identify the opportunity for collaborative learning, open classrooms and so forth were also—

The Hon. A. Koutsantonis interjecting:

The SPEAKER: The minister has the call. Interjections will cease.

The Hon. J.A.W. GARDNER: —built at a the time when a lack of carpet and echoes and so forth were sincerely problematic in those learning environments. That's amongst the challenges of some of the ageing infrastructure around our education system that we are now dealing with. The problem is so much worse in many Indigenous and remote Indigenous communities and there is, I believe—and I don't have the data here to back it up, but I'm very confident—an increased risk of loss of educational outcome as a result of particularly inner ear diseases and issues.

Sometimes measures such as even exposure and opportunities to engage in things like swimming pools can be assisting in communities, and that is something where the education department continues to invest and support.

What I am also going to do in addition to the high-level information that I have identified in this answer, if the member is happy, is take on notice with a view to bringing back some particular identified measures that are taking place in the education department and our public school system in particular. There are a number of others underway in non-government schools that I am aware of but not directly responsible for, but in our public education system, further measures undertaken to address the particular condition that the member has raised.