Music Teachers

Ms BEDFORD (Florey) (15:24): My question is to the Minister for Education. What additional funds and other measures will be put in place to employ additional instrumental music teachers in the public education system as year 7s move to high schools?

The Hon. J.A.W. GARDNER (Morialta—Minister for Education) (15:24): I thank the member for the question. There are a range of ways in which we deliver music support for students at school. We have some specialist music schools, and members would be familiar with those. We have an instrumental music service which provides group instruction for students up to year 12 and I believe some one-on-one tuition for some year 12 students. That service has maintained a reasonably consistent number of people over the period that I am aware of. In the time that I have been the minister, I do not think that has changed very much.

In addition, as we have increased resources to schools, we have encouraged schools to look at the work that they do in music. Indeed, some schools, in addition to engaging the music teachers that they may have, offer the opportunity for students to use, through either hourly paid instructors or private music instructors, the opportunity to study music as an individual or in group settings.

I remember the member for Port Adelaide, when she was education minister, was confronted with an industrial dispute brought on by the Australian Education Union, which did not want private music instructors to be allowed to engage with students in public schools. I thought that the member for Port Adelaide, when she was education minister, handled that matter very well. In the end, I think a sensible resolution was achieved. It was a resolution I remember discussing with her ahead of that, and I seriously doubt that it wasn't underway anyway. It was a sensible and logical opportunity for schools that had endeavoured to find individual music instructors who were appropriate and within the school's budget, and so forth, for a student. That not being possible, a private music instructor could be allowed.

That was the situation available to support students studying music when we came to government and all of those resources have continued. Two new things have happened since coming to government. First, we have announced that year 7s are going into high school. This has seen a significant investment over and above what was previously on the books for infrastructure, and many of those infrastructure jobs have gone to supporting performing arts facilities being improved in schools, highlighting the value of music programs for students.

There is also an investment that was originally budgeted at about $40 million a year. It could be a little bit more than that now, potentially, as we have more students than we had before. There is $40 million a year extra going into our schools to recognise that in our high schools we have more need for subject specialist teachers and specialist learning environments, reflecting the environment of a high school education rather than primary school, where you mostly have generalist teachers and maybe a specialist music teacher, or the instrumental music service is available, depending on the circumstances.

In that high school environment now, with $40 million extra going in to support music education and other specialist subjects, many high schools are investing more. That's a matter for the individual school and their circumstances. Some were specialist music schools and some already had music programs and some are expanding those. In addition to that, I am very pleased to advise the house that in I think late 2018 we implemented a new music education strategy which I think had in the order of $7 million over the forward estimates, but it is ongoing funding that has supported significant amounts of new support for—

Mr Picton: Thanks, Susan.

The Hon. J.A.W. GARDNER: The Labor government is now claiming credit for a press release they had, which is actually not relevant to the work that I did with Graeme Koehne from the Elder Conservatorium, Vincent Ciccarello from the Adelaide Symphony Orchestra and range of other people. It's an extraordinary body of work and it's been in place since late 2018 and it continues going forward. Labor had 16 years to do these things.

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. J.A.W. GARDNER: Labor had 16 years; it was a long 16 years. They didn't achieve it. This government has.