Teachers Dispute

The Hon. J.A.W. GARDNER (Morialta—Deputy Leader of the Opposition) (14:34): My question is to the Minister for Education. Can the minister update the house on how many schools and preschools will be offering modified or no learning programs on Friday due to the teachers' strike?

The Hon. B.I. BOYER (Wright—Minister for Education, Training and Skills) (14:34): I thank the member for Morialta for his question. Of course I share his concerns about what disruption we might see on Friday if the planned industrial action goes ahead. I know I speak on behalf of people both on this side and on the other side of this chamber that we hope we can avoid industrial action like this because of course it is an inconvenience to parents all over the state. It means that young people lose a day in their education.

I have been in contact again with the department and the chief executive today to ascertain exactly when we will have solid information for parents and school communities out there. I have been informed by some people in the metropolitan area who are starting to receive those messages through the school and the app that they use to communicate with the parent body around what teacher numbers might look like at the preschool or the primary or the secondary school in question and what kind of program will be run on Friday as a result of that.

The commitment the chief executive and I have made over the last 48 hours is that, regardless of what the outcome in terms of the number of teachers who will be striking on Friday should go ahead is, if parents need to send their children to preschool, primary school or high school because they have no other care arrangements available to them, then we will not turn anybody away. It may be that it is a reduced program more akin to an out-of-hours care or vacation care program that is being run there, so less of a normal school day and more of a day where it is care for the kids. Regardless of that, and regardless of what we learn in the next 24 hours when we have more specific data from each individual site, we will not turn people away on Friday and will make sure that they are accommodated in terms of their work commitments as best as they can be.

The other commitment I can tell the member for Morialta that I have given and the chief executive of the department has given is that we hope that that communication can be complete with school communities by tomorrow, most likely tomorrow afternoon, as all the information we need from staff around who will be striking and where flows into the department, so we can make an assessment of what the numbers are at each individual site and whether we can offer a full school program or whether it will be an out-of-hours type program.

Of course, the complexity around this—and I know the member for Morialta understands this—is that the ballot for the strike wasn't announced until 5pm on Friday, so we have been doing our level best in what has been a fairly short period of time available to us to get solid information to parents that we know will be accurate on Friday. I don't want anything to be rushed out which suggests to South Australian families that there will be something available for them at their child's site and then on Friday we can't deliver it.

I am confident that what we do deliver by way of a message to those families and school communities tomorrow afternoon will be something that they can rely on and make their plans around with a high level of certainty.