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House of Assembly - Fifty-Second Parliament, First Session (52-1)
2010-10-28 Daily Xml
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EDUCATION, ADULT RE-ENTRY

Mr PISONI (Unley) (14:23): My question is to the Minister for Education. Which aspiring premier is correct—quick, up, Patrick, up, up—

The SPEAKER: Order!

Mr PISONI: The Minister for Education who said today—

The Hon. P.F. CONLON: Point of order.

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. P.F. CONLON: I'm a courteous man, I always accept an invitation, but it is out of order.

The SPEAKER: It was very cheeky, I must admit.

Mr PISONI: Which minister is correct, the Minister for Education who said today, regarding the government's adult re-entry policy:

We can guarantee that everybody that is seeking to finish their high school will be able to complete their high school.

or the Treasurer who on 20 September 2010 said:

We don't have the luxury any more of accepting mature aged students into our normal schooling system.

The Hon. J.W. WEATHERILL (Cheltenham—Minister for Education, Minister for Early Childhood Development) (14:24): The two remarks are completely consistent.

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. J.W. WEATHERILL: Our schooling system has to be for the completion of high school. It cannot be used—

Members interjecting:

The Hon. J.W. WEATHERILL: We need to understand what it is being used for at the moment. We are aware that—and it has only been confirmed as I have travelled around to each of the adult re-entry colleges—people are doing high school subjects, using high school teachers and all of the resources of the high school system out of interest. That is fine, I like that, because it is a nice thing to be able to go back and do an arts subject here or there or a history subject here or there.

Many of these people are older South Australians and that is fine, as well. However, it is not being directed at completing their high schooling. It is not about getting on and getting a job or preparing for life. Many of these people have lived a very substantial life. On the front page of The Advertiser there was a 94-year-old gentleman who was studying history. The paper had a very interesting story about the fact that he had lived through the Depression and he was now studying the Depression. That is all fine and I do not think it is a bad thing. However, the problem is that we cannot afford to do that and do the other things that we need to do in our education system.

Remember, the extra $203 million that is going into education is a net figure. That is after the savings that we have had to make. It is a much more substantial figure that is going into our education system. This is the net figure after savings, the net increase in the education budget: $203 million. It is completely consistent with what the Treasurer said.

Our schooling system cannot be used for mature-age students who are looking for something in the nature of a WEA course. I am sure that it does provide some camaraderie and some interest for them, and I do not want to dismiss that as unimportant, but we cannot use our high cost, high standard high school model to—

Mr Marshall interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order, the member for Norwood! I warn the member for Norwood.

The Hon. J.W. WEATHERILL: —provide that support. The truth is that, as our school retention figures have gone up, our adult re-entry colleges have taken fewer people who are seeking to complete their high schooling. So, they have taken in other people to fill up the space. We cannot afford to continue doing that and we are focusing, as I said, on making sure that people complete high school in the first place or give people a second chance to complete their high schooling.

Mr Williams interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order members on my right, also!

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