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House of Assembly - Fifty-First Parliament, Third Session (51-3)
2009-10-28 Daily Xml
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VICTOR HARBOR HIGH SCHOOL

Mr PENGILLY (Finniss) (15:51): I bring to the house's attention a matter of considerable concern across the state, which is also a concern in my electorate, particularly at the Victor Harbor High School. Fortunately, we have governing councils and people in positions who provide information. I take a close interest in my schools. Victor Harbor High School is the one and only high school in my electorate and, being attended by hundreds of children, I spend quite a bit of time dealing with these issues.

When the Rudd government came to office, it made some promises—in fact, it made a lot of promises—but it has not delivered on too many. The situation with the digital revolution in the secondary schools is a disgrace. The time lag imposed by the Rann Labor government is even more of a disgrace. The information that I have is a cause for real concern around the government and the decision-making around the digital revolution.

On the night of the federal Labor victory, it was announced that every year 9 to 12 student would have a computer. Within a week, this was scaled back to 'everyone would have access to a computer'. Now that there is talk of a federal election, the Digital Education Revolution (DER) will not be delivered as intended by the time the election comes around. This has caused Victor Harbor High School considerable grief and delay in the acquisition of the machines. At the end of the day, the students have missed out. They are the ones who have missed out. It is my belief that the schools are too easily manipulated by DECS and the Rann government.

These matters have been raised with me. Not only are we seven or eight years late in getting the upgrade to the Victor Harbor High School and the TAFE, but now we have just a blatant abrogation of responsibility. The fact is that the Victor Harbor High School students are still waiting for a lot of this gear to be rolled out and a lot of concern is raised about the round two process. Round one has been successful. They are currently at a computer-student ratio of 1:2 and they are in the process of installing a ratio of 1:2 with brand new machines that have a four-year warranty.

However, round two schools are a different story. They are yet to receive their Digital Education Revolution promise; 113 round two South Australian schools which completed their DER application before the cut-off date were allocated a number of computers, which would bring them to a ratio of one computer per student, which includes replacement of machines older than four years at 30 June 2008.

The school and the parents would not have raised these issues with me if they did not think they were being dudded by the Labor government yet again. This promise has not been delivered to the DER registered state government schools in my electorate—Victor Harbor High School being the main subject today.

Another issue that branches from this is that round two schools are now being told that they are unable to replace their current four-year old computers with the extra DER computers and will have to budget for them using school funds. So much for the government's digital revolution funding! Normally, annual school budgets are drafted in term one; however, Victor Harbor High School did not allocate extra funds for the cost of replacement computers as they were under the impression that DECS would deliver them, as promised—another broken promise.

According to Victor Harbor High School, 25 of their existing computers need to be replaced which will be about $200,000 out of their original allocation to get to the national average computer to student ratio of 1:2.

Parents are one of the fund options for state government schools. Is the federal government expecting parents to now fund the promise that they made in the lead up to the 2007 federal election? I seriously question where they are going on this. They have failed dismally in this revolution. They have promised the world, they have not delivered, and the computers are still waiting to happen. The Rann Labor government has failed to follow it up. DECS have not done their part. Now we are looking at parents having to fund this process.

No wonder the families of children attending the Victor Harbor High School are a bit up in arms about it. No wonder there is a lot of concern down there. It is simply not good enough. The 47 DER round 1 schools, which for one reason or another had old machines or did not have the 1:1 ratio, now have, if their networks can manage it, 1:2 and are now in the process of installing 1:2 with new machines, under guarantee for the next four years. Depending on the state of their networks, these schools will be able to order up 1:1 over the next two years. Then, there are the 113 round 2 schools. Victor Harbor High School has struggled with this, and it is not good enough.

Time expired.

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