Stem Skills

The Hon. T.T. NGO (14:50): Thank you, Mr President—

Members interjecting:

The PRESIDENT: Order! The Hon. Mr Ngo has the floor.

The Hon. T.T. NGO: I seek leave to make a brief explanation before asking the Minister for Science and Information Economy a question about science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) subjects amongst young people in South Australia.

The Hon. G.E. GAGO (Minister for Employment, Higher Education and Skills, Minister for Science and Information Economy, Minister for the Status of Women, Minister for Business Services and Consumers) (14:51): I thank the honourable member for his most important question.

The Hon. T.T. Ngo interjecting:

The Hon. G.E. GAGO: I beg your pardon; there is more.

Leave granted.

The Hon. T.T. NGO: We got distracted. There has been widespread concern that insufficient numbers of young Australians are choosing careers in STEM. It is widely recognised that strong capacity in these fields is vital for South Australia to create a vibrant and knowledge-based economy that maximises the economic use of our opportunities and vast resources. Can the minister tell the chamber of recent developments in developing South Australia's STEM skills?

The Hon. G.E. GAGO: I apologise for my overenthusiastic eagerness to talk about this most important issue. There is no doubt that South Australia's future prosperity depends on developing a skilled workforce who will make optimum use of opportunities in our emerging industries. Defence, mining, bioscience, clean tech, food and other industries in South Australia will all need people with STEM skills. To this end, our STEM strategy focuses heavily on boosting the numbers and qualifications of people with skills in the fields of physical and mathematical sciences, ICT and engineering.

Addressing this long-term demand requires concerted and focused action by educators at all levels, government, industries and training organisations, and our STEM strategy recognises seven key building blocks to change the proportion of South Australians with skills. It looks at the right policy and standards framework, boosting our teaching workforce, high quality learning resources, contemporary education infrastructure, partnerships and pathways, STEM workforce development and broader community scientific awareness.

However, these building blocks all rest on a critical human element, and that is that young people must be interested in STEM subjects in the first place, so it was very gratifying that overnight the winner of a national award, the 2014 Prime Minister's Prize for Excellence in Science Teaching in Primary Schools, was Mr Brian Schiller, a teacher at Seacliff Primary School in Adelaide's southern suburbs. In speaking about his teaching Mr Schiller said:

A good primary science class develops maths skills, language, problem solving and critical thinking skills. The children and their learning are the focus of the classroom, and they inspire each other to such a great extent.

The recognition of Mr Schiller, for his inspiring work of awakening young minds to the value of using their imaginations to ask 'what if' or 'why does', is most timely. Many successful scientists will later in their working lives credit a particular teacher for opening the possibilities of a science career to them. We need to frequently and publicly acknowledge the role of those teachers and lecturers, from early primary right through to postgraduate tertiary teaching, inspiring our future STEM professionals.

Mr Schiller is not alone in being a dynamic and exciting science teacher. Every year the South Australian Science Excellence Awards recognise excellence in both school and tertiary teaching. The passion and dedication of those teachers is always evident in how they talk about their profession and in the appreciation their students show for them.

It is with great pleasure that I extend my congratulations to Mr Brian Schiller for the national Prize for Excellence in Science Teaching in Primary Schools, and I wish him very well. In doing so, I also express my appreciation for all our science and STEM teachers and the vital part they play in our long-term STEM strategy.