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House of Assembly - Fifty-Fourth Parliament, First Session (54-1)
2019-07-02 Daily Xml
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International Education Strategy

Ms BEDFORD (Florey) (14:46): My question is for the Minister for Education. I refer to your better services announcements on 5 June and ask how schools such as Modbury High can be involved and receive part of the $6 million International Education Strategy funding?

The Hon. J.A.W. GARDNER (Morialta—Minister for Education) (14:46): I thank the member for Florey for this excellent question. We are very proud of the opportunities that we are looking to provide for schools across South Australia, particularly those who are not traditionally the ones who have had dozens and dozens and in some cases more than hundreds of international students, to be able to get some of the benefits of having those international students included in their cohorts.

To just frame some of the opportunities for Modbury and other schools in this area to help inform them of any benefits that exist, there are financial benefits and there are educational benefits. The financial benefits that come with international students are, of course, that, for a number of years—and this was operating under the previous government as well, of course, and I think the people running the international education stream under the former government are still the same people now and they are doing good work and they were doing good work—there are opportunities for the schools to get the funding stream to the school and also a certain funding stream to the system.

Indeed, the International Education Unit within the education department, as I understand it, is basically a self-funding unit and they provide support to the schools in terms of reaching out to international student markets, helping to coordinate homestay arrangements and helping the schools to have the best offerings possible that assist schools to be attractive to those international students. Having those international students at the school is a benefit for the students. They can share practice and they can share their experiences with the students at the schools.

Modbury High School is a school that currently has a good quality program for international students. I understand the member's interest in this school in particular, so I can advise that there are currently six international students at the school, with numbers increasing to 14 in term 3, so it is in the range of schools we are looking at in terms of potentially helping them to get some extra support. Of course, some of those schools that have large numbers of international students—Adelaide High and Brighton schools, some of the schools of that nature—are also schools that have significant capacity pressures.

They have excellent international programs, but we would love them to be able to share some of their practice with other schools in the education system to help those other schools take more international students, particularly where they have the capacity to do so, and Modbury High may well be one of those schools. But, of course, we can't have any more international students at Adelaide or Brighton or some of those other schools than we already do. Indeed, we have had to introduce a cap and reduce the number of international students at a couple of those schools.

In relation to Modbury, I can further advise that the school has hosted study tours, including groups from Vietnam, Indonesia and Japan, this year and last year. It has been part of the Partnership School program between the Office of the Basic Education Commission, the Ministry of Education, Thailand, and our education department. They have had recent visits from Thai leaders, plus the principal and the international student program manager visited Thailand last year. Under the recently announced strategy, we are looking to have tailored packages of support for up to 20 schools that have less experience, and get them that support so they can build their profile.

Modbury High School may be one of those schools; we haven't determined those 20 schools yet. It will be considered seriously in amongst the other schools that are interested. We honestly have to get a sense, also, from those schools that are keen to be part of the package, and the department is doing that work with schools across South Australia in the coming months. Certainly, the member for Florey's advocacy on behalf of Modbury High School is noted. I know that the member for Florey has a long relationship with the school.

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