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House of Assembly - Fifty-Second Parliament, First Session (52-1)
2011-07-26 Daily Xml
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INNOVATIVE COMMUNITY ACTION NETWORKS

Mr ODENWALDER (Little Para) (15:49): My question is to the Minister for Education. Can the minister advise the house of the progress of getting the successful school retention program ICAN to schools across the state?

The Hon. J.W. WEATHERILL (Cheltenham—Minister for Education, Minister for Early Childhood Development, Minister for Science and Information Economy) (15:50): I thank the honourable member for his question, and also for his advocacy on behalf of constituents in his electorate, particularly in making sure that they have the best possible opportunities in life by getting a solid education, including a strong vocational education for those students who seek it.

I have had the benefit of a number of discussions with him, and meetings with him in the electorate, and I know that he would be pleased to hear that the ICAN (Innovative Community Action Networks) initiative, which members would be aware of and which was an initiative of the Social Inclusion Board back in 2004, has now been expanded to cover the whole of South Australia. The reason we have chosen to roll out that school retention strategy to the whole of South Australia is that it has been spectacularly successful. It has improved school retention rates, given communities the opportunity to come together to provide specialist support for young people at risk, and given them the opportunity to actually complete their schooling.

We know that it will require 12 years of schooling, at a minimum, to gain access to the jobs that will be out there in the future, the jobs that are growing within the community. Even trade jobs now require a higher level of skill than they ever have before, so a minimum of 12 years of schooling is absolutely essential; and that is why keeping young people engaged in school is absolutely essential. This program has so far successfully helped more than 10,000 public school students to re-engage with their studies and learning. That is 10,000 young people who have a brighter future, 10,000 young people who have the skills to allow them to transform their lives, 10,000 young people who will increase the capacity of our community.

Since its inception, we have, of course, been expanding this program. With the expansion of the program to the Barossa, the Mid North, the eastern suburbs and the Adelaide Hills regions, we have now expanded this initiative to the whole of the state. In addition to this statewide rollout, we are now also extending our ICAN network to primary schools. The new primary school model of ICAN identifies and addresses individual issues that could affect the ability of a student to transition to high school. We know that those transition points are absolutely crucial. They are the points at which students become disengaged; the points at which we begin the process of losing young people from our schooling system. Truancy, non-attendance, and disengagement can often begin at those crucial transition points, and that is why the ICANs are so important at that time.

We know that there are many young people who have barriers to their success, many of which are beyond their control. For many of them, education will seem a very low priority in the order of things that are confronting them in their lives. We have teenage mothers who have been thrown out of home, we have kids overcoming the consequences of abuse or neglect, we have homeless children, we have kids with the responsibility of actually supporting their own families, and we have other children out there with caring responsibilities for disabled family members. Those young people are not putting education at the top of their priorities because they cannot, so we need to find ways of supporting them so that they are engaged in and part of finding a solution for themselves.

They cannot do it alone. They need the assistance of non-government organisations, the assistance of family and friends, they need to be supported to be well before they can learn. They need to be supported to make a success of their careers. That is what the ICAN initiative does, and I am very proud that it is being run out across the state.

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