Royal Commission into Early Childhood Education and Care

The Hon. J.A.W. GARDNER (Morialta—Deputy Leader of the Opposition) (14:42): My question is to the Minister for Education. How does the government respond to recommendations 24 and 31 of the royal commission? With your leave, sir, and that of the house, I will explain.

Leave granted.

The Hon. J.A.W. GARDNER: Recommendation 24 is to approve a three-year degree for teachers limited to working in early childhood settings rather than the four-year degree. Recommendation 31 is to approve diploma-qualified staff to act up as teachers in programs that currently require either a teacher to be in place unless there is an authorised person, or a waiver in place.

The Hon. B.I. BOYER (Wright—Minister for Education, Training and Skills) (14:42): I thank the member for Morialta for his question. The recommendation to which the member for Morialta refers is a recommendation from the royal commissioner around us creating here in South Australia a birth-to-five degree for early childhood teachers. Just to give the members of this place a bit of context, we currently have a birth-to-eight degree. Of course, current degrees take about four years and the recommendation from the royal commissioner is to change from a birth-to-eight degree to a birth-to-five degree and be able to do that in a shorter time frame.

We are very positive. We think this is something that we absolutely are going to have to deliver if we are to deliver on the workforce targets that we have as part of the royal commission report. We have the very, very strong recommendation of the royal commissioner. She spoke publicly on a number of occasions around why she thought it was important for us to adopt this recommendation. There are other jurisdictions in Australia that are already operating a birth-to-five three-year degree, and that seems to be working successfully.

I asked questions personally of the royal commissioner, when I had the opportunity, around, 'Was there any indication in all the research that you did and all the people you spoke to as part of forming the recommendations that there was any kind of reduction in quality of that early childhood teacher workforce by changing it from birth-to-eight or birth-to-five and four to three years?' Her very strong advice was that there was not. She was confident that if we made those changes we would be able to have not just a degree that can be delivered in a shorter time frame then the existing birth-to-eight, but also have one that is more focused in the time that is taken to conduct that decree on those first birth-to-five years.

Of course, there has been another byproduct here in South Australia of us being outliers by having a birth-to-five degree. It means you can teach the early years in primary school, and there has been repeated feedback given to me when I have gone to sites, particularly those that might run a preschool, that they often lose their early childhood teachers to primary school teaching, that it is hard to keep that workforce there.

I think another benefit of making the change here from birth-to-eight to birth-to-five, and from four years to three years, is that we can provide a bit more consistency and less turnover of staff in the early years.