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House of Assembly - Fifty-Fourth Parliament, First Session (54-1)
2019-10-30 Daily Xml
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World Teachers' Day

Mrs POWER (Elder) (11:58): I move:

That this house notes that 25 October was World Teachers' Day and acknowledges the achievements of dedicated teachers across South Australia in supporting our next generation.

In the very first speech I made in this place, I spoke about my passion for policy reform that focuses on raising the quality of education and training in our state. I spoke about my belief in education as the foundation for a modern society. Education creates a pathway to jobs and prosperity. We need to see education as a lifelong process, with opportunities for people to participate in education at various points in their life.

This is even more important as we face significant changes in the employment market, and people are likely to have multiple careers in their lifetime. Ensuring that South Australians have access to quality education and training to develop the knowledge and skills for the jobs of today and the jobs of tomorrow is essential for better living not only for the individual but for our state as a whole.

I believe quality education is more than great infrastructure, efficient systems and funding investment. Rather, quality education often lies with the passion, competence and support structures surrounding teachers. That is why I think World Teachers' Day is one of the most deserving days on the world appreciation calendar. Celebrated in more than 100 countries worldwide, World Teachers' Day was established in 1994 to recognise the role of teachers in society. The day is a great opportunity for everyone to recognise and appreciate teachers and the important role they play in shaping the next generation.

This year, there is a focus on the #BrightFuture of the profession, including beginner teachers starting their career. We continue to highlight the critical importance of this career and the value brought to society. We encourage and support all new teachers to be the best they can be and bring their passion to the classroom—pre-service teachers, those just starting out, and those pursuing a career change in education.

World Teachers' Day is also about celebrating the role experienced teachers play in the classroom and supporting those teachers just starting out on their teaching journey. For me, it is not only about teachers; it is also about recognising the contributions of others who work with and alongside teachers, such as the leadership teams, the principals and deputy principals, the SSOs and the pastoral care workers. Their contribution to our communities cannot be underestimated.

I think all of us can reflect on our years as students and recall a particular teacher who had an impact on us. Hopefully, for most of us that memory is a positive one. Whether that was a teacher who motivated us, inspired us, connected with us on a level that was not experienced with anyone else in our lives or simply saw our potential, there are many amazing teachers who are no doubt responsible for why many of us are here today.

It is undeniably a challenging job, leading students from all walks of life, abilities and interests, educating them not only on subject matters but taking into account their personal wellbeing and things that might be happening outside the classroom. Teachers have so many great qualities. Dedicated to positive outcomes, they lead, encourage, support, listen and challenge. World Teachers' Day is a day when we stop to recognise this and everything they bring to students in shaping the future. In this spirit, I would acknowledge all the teachers, administration staff supporting teachers, SSOs, pastoral care workers, principals and leadership staff at the schools in the seat of Elder, namely:

Clapham Primary School;

Clovelly Park Primary School;

Colonel Light Gardens Primary School;

Edwardstown Primary School;

Westbourne Park Primary School;

Hamilton Secondary College;

Springbank Secondary College;

Cabra Dominican College;

St Bernadette's School;

St Therese School;

Suneden Specialist School; and

Sacred Heart College Middle School.

I would also like to make mention of schools across South Australia. In my local area, Clapham Primary School is a vibrant and exciting primary school. In my short time as the member for Elder, I have already seen big changes at the school, with its STEM facilities, newly painted school fence, and its gardens, which are always improving.

I am sure that the parents at the school know Jodie Kingham, the school principal, to be a friendly, warm and welcoming face at the school, along with other staff members. I have dropped in unannounced to Clapham Primary School on numerous occasions and Jodie has always made herself available to chat, say hello and share with me what is happening at the school. There has indeed been much happening at Clapham Primary School, such as their Halloween disco, making beeswax candles, community action day, and their upcoming quiz night on Saturday 2 November, which has a Great Gatsby theme. Well done to everybody at this school.

Clovelly Park Primary School is an inclusive and welcoming school. I am always impressed by the artwork at the school, which is a powerful reminder of the importance of community and inclusivity. I understand the school students have helped to create the latest masterpiece with artist James Parker.

Last year, when I attended the graduation I was so impressed by the ceremony and in the manner in which the school presented it. It was almost similar to one I have seen on television during the Oscars. The students spoke incredibly well, with humour and intelligence. There is no doubt that result came about because of the great teachers and staff at that school supporting those students. I look forward to this year’s graduation ceremony and to meeting with the school's principal, Tereina Pope, in the upcoming weeks.

Colonel Light Gardens Primary School is headed by principal Rick Bennallack who, with his teaching staff, has no doubt helped to create the caring and warm culture at this school. I know that the school goes above and beyond in its educational duties and has recently run a number of parenting workshops. Several times I have enjoyed visiting the school with its unique culture and the way in which it sprawls out onto Mortlock Park—a great playground—and the students who just melt my heart with their incredibly intelligent and sensitive questions.

Edwardstown Primary School is in our local area and is, indeed, achieving great things, with principal Kathy Papps and deputy assistant principals Vicky Bashford and Shane Atkins. This weekend the school will be holding its annual Strawberry Fair. Anyone who has attended this event knows what an incredible feat this is, with its many stalls and family fun activities. I encourage everyone in our local community to attend the fair at the school this Sunday between 10am and 3pm and support this fantastic local school.

Westbourne Park Primary School's principal, Julie Gallaher, leads a great school with a rich history. It was established in 1914 and has a focus on the wellbeing of its students. In 2011, Westbourne Park Primary School received an International School of Excellence in Habits of Mind Award in recognition of their work in developing and embedding the habits of mind. More recently, their annual sports day, which was held on World Teachers' Day, was a great success. There were a few light showers, leaving the grass a bit too wet for the schoolchildren to sit on, but apparently everybody had a great day nonetheless. Well done to the sustainability and grounds committee on their recent working bees over the weekend and in getting the school grounds spick and span ahead of Special Persons' Day next week.

I would especially like to acknowledge Hamish Price, who is part of that committee, and I have met with several times. He is absolutely committed to seeing Westbourne Park Primary School lead the way with initiatives around trees and stormwater harvesting. It has been an absolute delight to work with someone in our community to ensure that our schools are the best that they can be.

Hamilton Secondary College, a school in our local area, is really leading the way with its space school and recent STEM classroom upgrades. On Friday 6 September, an innovative new collaboration between high school students and some of Australia's leading space scientists was launched right here at Hamilton Secondary College. I commend Peta Kourbelis for leading the way in making these projects a reality and ensuring that Hamilton Secondary College is a flourishing school delivering high-quality education in our community. This includes not only the space school but also an arts showcase that will take place on Thursday 14 November. The community is encouraged to come along and support the talented music, drama and art students.

Springbank Secondary College is a school that most people in our local community will be aware has recently undergone quite significant transformation. It has not just been a name change for the school. The staff there, both teachers and leadership, and the governing council members have worked really hard to transform the culture and the education principles, and to ensure that that school is set up for future success. I acknowledge Wendy House, the principal there, and her team.

In Elder, we also have a range of Catholic schools that make a great contribution to our community: Cabra Dominican College with its principal, Dr Helen Rieke; St Bernadette's School with its principal, Ray Higgins; St Therese School with Amanda Humeniuk; and Sacred Heart College Middle School. I have enjoyed visiting all those schools, and again I am always impressed by the quality of engagement with their students and the intelligent remarks of those students.

Recently, when I attended the assembly at St Therese School I had the pleasure of meeting a young student who was principal for the day—I think she was set to do great things—and heard about how the school was working with the Department of Planning, Transport and Infrastructure on the way to school project.

I would also like to especially acknowledge Suneden Specialist School in Mitchell Park. This year, I saw Heidi Payne and Helen Motta take on the roles of co-principals. It is indeed a special school, not just by name but by nature. It does an incredible job in working with students who have special needs and ensuring that they have the opportunity to learn independent living skills, enjoy their learning experience and really thrive.

They are the schools in my local area but, as I mentioned, World Teachers' Day is not just about the schools in Elder. It is about the schools and teachers not just in our state but across the world. I really commend every single teacher out there, whether in a formal role or even an informal role because I know that there are lots of parents who take on the role of being a teacher after hours.

Particularly for those who are working formally in the education system, it is challenging. We know that they are faced with unique challenges that are different from what they were generations ago. I pause to celebrate the work of all the dedicated teachers and school staff who continue to strive every day to ensure that inclusive and equitable quality education is a reality. I commend the motion to the house.

Dr CLOSE (Port Adelaide—Deputy Leader of the Opposition) (12:10): I thank the member for Elder for bringing this motion to parliament. There is absolutely multipartisan unanimous support for such a motion. Indeed, for our teaching profession, how could that not be the case? I take this opportunity, as I have for the past several years, to thank the teachers I had at school many years ago now. I particularly remember fondly Mr Swanson, who I understand has now passed away, who was an extraordinary classics teacher for me in year 12.

I did not do English because I had had an argument with the English teacher the year before over the interpretation of a poem. In my arrogance at the age of 15 or 16, I felt that such a subjective approach of simply disagreeing with my interpretation was not to be tolerated, so I determined to do classics instead, which is essentially literature but with Greek classics at the time. I very much enjoyed Mr Swanson for his sense of humour and his extraordinarily broad education that he conveyed to us.

Again, as I do every year, I thank the teachers my children have had and are still having. We still have a few more years left of the school experience. I thank them for their generosity, their wisdom and also, at times, their patience with my beautiful children. As the member for Elder has done, I thank the teachers involved in teaching my community, and by that I mean not only my electorate but our shared community of South Australia. They are truly making a difference every day. There are not many professions that can claim that, although there are others. I thank them for the sacrifices that they make in order to do that.

I would like to turn briefly to some of the challenges that I think our teachers face. On World Teachers' Day it behoves us to acknowledge not only the very great efforts that they make and our gratitude for their contribution to individuals and society but also the pretty stiff challenges they face every day, some of which we in this parliament can do something about and others that are more complex than we can simply manage.

One issue at the moment is their enterprise agreement, not only their pay but also their conditions. I note that South Australian teachers are slipping to the bottom of the pay rates. I hope that we are able as a state to settle an enterprise agreement that means that teachers are paid sufficiently well and that teaching remains, and in fact becomes even more so, a profession of choice. We desperately need people who could do anything to choose to do teaching in greater numbers. The pay and conditions are no small part of that, although they are not the only part.

I also note the challenges that teachers are set in the classroom. They come from many directions. One is the complexity in every classroom, more in some than in others, that comes from having very different children sitting in the classroom who require differentiated teaching: a child who could do with some stretching and a child who needs a hand to catch up to age level. We expect teachers simply to absorb that difficulty, and they do, but it is not easy. The more support they can have to do that well, the better.

That also includes the professional development offered to them after they get into teaching and the training that leads up to that. We need to constantly scrutinise whether it is good enough, whether there is enough of it and whether there is enough support, particularly once people start working as teachers, to undertake that professional development. We brought in an initiative, which I am absolutely certain this government is continuing, to support early career teachers—so important that it is a bipartisan approach—to make sure that once they start and go from the experience largely of being at university, with a little bit of time prac teaching, to suddenly being in charge of a class by themselves, they have all the support in mentoring, professional development and time to reflect on their practice, that they are able to feel that they can do that well and that this is a profession that they should stay in.

When I talk about complexity, there are two very strong elements I would like to highlight. One is the number of students with disabilities who sit in our classrooms, as they should and as they are entitled to. I think that South Australia has, over a period of time, developed a pretty good range of ways to deal with students who have a variety of disabilities. There are schools dedicated to students with highly complex needs and there are units and special classes in schools that also cater to students who are best taught in a very small group and taught by teachers who are well practised and, it is hoped, trained in looking after students who have particular needs associated with their disabilities.

Then, of course, there are a lot of students who are identified as having disabilities who sit in what is otherwise known as a mainstream class. I am not sure what 'mainstream' means anymore—we all come in such a wide variety. Nonetheless, it has to be acknowledged that there are some disabilities students have that make teaching them slightly more complex, and that is where we need to make sure that we are offering those teachers sufficient support and also that the SSOs who work in the classrooms have sufficient support to do that work well.

We never seem to have quite come up with enough money to really deal with all the issues that all our students have. We must not stop on that quest of properly supporting students. What breaks my heart is how often I hear about students with disabilities simply not going to school, either because they have been excluded or because it has been suggested that they might be better off homeschooled (or parents feel that they should be homeschooled), or that there is an arrangement whereby they are able to attend for part of the time but not at all of the time as a feature of their disability. We have to keep doing better on that: every child deserves an education; every child deserves for us to have a system that is able to respond to them.

The second of the complexities that I would like to highlight is the complexity of poverty. By the measure of ACOSS, working with the University of New South Wales recently, we have the highest percentage of poverty of all the states—higher than Tasmania. That means that, when you are a child in a family who is experiencing poverty, particularly experiencing poverty when the allowances provided by the national government have become so mean, you are experiencing real deprivation every day.

It is trite, but it is true: it is very hard to get a good education when you are living out of a car with your parents or with your mum or your dad. It is hard to get a good education when you are really hungry. It is hard to get a good education when home life is chaotic and difficult because of the stresses placed on the family unit, so that homework cannot be a priority, so that wearing the same quality of uniform and having a proper schoolbag is not easy for your family. That is very, very rough on those children.

Our education system still does not sufficiently respond to that. We still have the replication of disadvantage going into our school system and disadvantage coming out of our school system, and the only thing we have in between that are our teachers. Our teachers every day in the public schools in low SES areas, and in every public school and in every school that addresses low SES communities, are the chance that those children have.

There are transformative experiences that children from very difficult backgrounds can have thanks to the teacher who recognises their potential and who acknowledges the difficulties that they face are not insurmountable. I want to pay particular tribute to those teachers: teachers who choose to work in a school that is harder than other schools; schools, principals, SSOs and all the staff who choose to be in a school where they know they will deal with more students of disadvantage, and they do that because they believe that is where they make the most profound difference.

We as a state—and I do not want to make this political—and we as a parliament can and must do better to support the teachers in those circumstances to make sure that they have more resources, to make sure that there are the right policy signals to diversify those schools so that there is not such a concentration of students who require additional support as a result purely of the poverty of their parents. On World Teachers' Day I thank all teachers, but particularly teachers teaching the poorest of our children.

The Hon. J.A.W. GARDNER (Morialta—Minister for Education) (12:20): I am grateful for the opportunity to speak on the motion from the member for Elder recognising World Teachers' Day and, in particular, being able to talk about some of the amazing work that is done by teachers, SSOs and support staff in our schools, as the member for Elder rightly recognised.

Of course, World Teachers' Day is actually at the beginning of October. Every year, it fits right in the middle of our school holidays, so we celebrate World Teachers' Day on Australia's World Teachers' Day, which we call 25 October, to ensure that we can have that celebration at a time when our teachers are at school and their work and the acknowledgment of that can equally be felt.

I believe that this motion comes to the parliament pretty much every year now, so I will do my best not to repeat things I have said in previous years, although it is hard, as the Deputy Leader of the Opposition said, not to take a moment to reflect on some of the amazing experiences that we have had ourselves in our interactions with teachers throughout our lives and the impact they have had on our careers.

Today, I will just reflect briefly to acknowledge that there are teachers who have impacted on my life through my experience at school and at university, and teachers who have interacted with me in the rest of my life, who have changed the direction my life was going, who have inspired me to be a better person and who have directed me towards interests that I might not have realised I had. I am forever grateful for that work, and I know the impact that our teachers sometimes have on our lives. They may not realise the impact they have had on hundreds of lives throughout their careers, and on World Teachers' Day we take the opportunity to say thank you to them for those positive influences they have had on us for such an extended period of time.

As Minister for Education, it is a real privilege to see some of the great work that is done across our 700 schools, our 500 public schools, our 400 public preschools, or thereabouts, and a range of other early learning settings across South Australia where our teachers are going about their business; of course, teachers also do work in our post-school settings to an extent.

I have particular responsibility for groups of teachers who are in our public schools, and I am grateful for that. We also have some recognitions. We asked Educators SA, which used to be the council of education associations of South Australia, to particularly look after some of those celebrations. It was a privilege to be able to share that time with a number of teachers, as well as with the Deputy Leader of the Opposition and a number of educational stakeholders. It was particularly pleasing to see a great number of early career teachers who came along to the award celebration for World Teachers' Day last Friday night.

For a number of years, a range of awards have been sponsored by ministers for education, so I particularly take this opportunity to acknowledge the finalists in the Minister's Arts Education Award Primary: Indra Benson, Port Pirie West Primary School; Adam Broadbent, Christie Downs Primary School; Tracey McKenna, Woodville Primary School; and the winner was Lily Gower, SA School for Vision Impaired. It was wonderful to be able to see some of the work she is doing, which was showcased.

The Minister's Arts Education Award Secondary saw finalists from all over South Australia: Roma Mitchell Secondary College, Natalie Andreou; Brighton Secondary School, Catherine Carter; Henley High School, Megan Cooper; Heathfield High School, Lindsay Crowe; Glenunga International High School, Julianne Hall; Adelaide High School, Tim Moors; and Henley High School, Jackie Reichstein. These were all worthy finalists, but the winner was Wanda Jarvis from Port Lincoln High School in the Deputy Speaker's own electorate. It was wonderful to see a teacher from regional South Australia take that award.

This year, as part of the government's approach to enhancing languages education in our schools, encouraging more students to undertake languages education and enhancing the status of languages education in our schools, we also had the introduction of three new awards for languages teachers, scholarship awards, as part of these World Teachers' Day awards. This is in addition to a range of scholarships that are now provided in our public school system as part of this government's languages strategy that have been introduced in the last year as well.

There is a range of teachers in our public system who are eligible for those languages scholarships but, particularly on World Teachers' Day, we also acknowledge the work of languages teachers across South Australia with three new awards, one for each system in languages teaching. In the Catholic Schools category, Maria Callisto from Sacred Heart College was a finalist, but the winner was Amanda Measday of the School of the Nativity/McCauley Community School. In the Independent Schools category, Sarah Burrow from Emmaus Christian College was a finalist, as was Leah Wardle from St John's Grammar School. The winner was Georgia Heynemann from Immanuel College.

In the Public Schools category, finalists included Cathryn Miegel from Lameroo Regional Rural School, Malgorzata Sztoic from the School of Languages. The winner was a wonderful Indonesian teacher called Tanya McCulloch from Naracoorte South Primary School. Interestingly, I had met Tanya two days prior when I visited Naracoorte South Primary School with the member for MacKillop on a range of school visits I was able to do with the member for MacKillop over the course of last week. Seeing the practice in her classroom was inspirational enough earlier in the week, then to see her recognised for that with a scholarship that will help her enhance her teaching and share that teaching style and capacity with the rest of the school to the benefit of the school on the Friday night was a real privilege.

I highlight the World Teachers' Day awards for two reasons, firstly because I think it is important for the teachers who are demonstrating this best practice who are giving their all to their profession—and there are thousands throughout South Australia. To have some of these high achievers highlighted for their achievements is a wonderful inspirational and aspirational thing in and of itself. I think it also highlights that, while we have a focus in our system in our state, and rightly so, on STEM learning (science, technology, engineering and maths) which is important, they are also important for our future economy and getting our children and young people set up to get the jobs of the future.

There are many jobs of the future that are not going to rely on STEM capabilities and there are many children in our communities whose inspiration and future are going to be in non-STEM pathways. So the teaching of arts education and the teaching of languages education can be in addition to STEM learning as well. But it is important that the work that goes on in those areas, as we seek to ensure that our children get the best support to help them live what is going to be a successful life for them, is also highlighted. Languages teaching and arts teaching in those areas are very important.

I agree with most of what the Deputy Leader of the Opposition said and I appreciate that she took the opportunity to talk about challenges largely in a positive way. I do not have time to reflect sufficiently on the EB issues to talk about that, other than to say that I agree with the Deputy Leader of the Opposition that our teachers should be paid well.

They deserve a good agreement. They deserve good resourcing. That is why the government has put on the table a generous agreement substantially above CPI and, as the Deputy Leader of the Opposition said, that goes hand in hand with the fact that we must always be striving to do better. That is why the South Australian government sees education as an investment. In signing the National School Funding Reform Agreement last year, to get the commonwealth agreement to release their money, we had to commit to increase state government resourcing into public education by $700 million over the next decade.

We are putting substantial extra resources into this area than were in the budget in the settings left to us when we became elected, and that is as it should be because this is an area where more resourcing is necessary. It is also important that we spend that resourcing very wisely, and we are seeking to make that investment wisely. We have substantial new resources going into education through ensuring that we target those resources effectively and, as more resources become available, no doubt there will be further investments in the future. We can best support our teachers to help our students be all they can be.

The Deputy Leader of the Opposition made some comments about early career teachers, students with disability and complexity and indeed poverty that I utterly agreed with, and I thought that she put them well. She was talking about some of the complex issues in our classes on which our needs-based funding model is based, where we recognise that we have some extra capacity required to support students with high levels of poverty or disability and complexity.

One area that I want to briefly focus on in the short time remaining is a complexity that she did not talk about it—although I know she cares about it—and that is regional differences. The fact is that schools that are remote, that may be smaller, that may be a long way from larger communities or even towns that are a long way from Adelaide, have a level of complexity that some metropolitan schools do not have, whether that is in relation to transport, the availability of TRTs or particulars, or some specific challenges in certain areas. One school we visited has had to advertise for a principal on a number of occasions because it is tricky to get people to understand how wonderful some communities are if they have not lived there before.

Thank you to all those teachers who go that extra effort, particularly in our country areas all across South Australia. I know that this motion will be supported by everyone in the house.

Mr BOYER (Wright) (12:30): It is a great pleasure to rise today to speak on this motion and to note this very important occasion that is World Teachers' Day. This morning, I have enjoyed listening to the speeches from the member for Elder, the member for Port Adelaide and the member for Morialta about recollections of their schooldays. I know that everybody in this place has memories of teachers they had when they were at school. Hopefully, they are positive memories about a teacher who inspired them or made a huge difference to their life.

I was fortunate enough to have several of those, but the one I wish to focus on today is my father, who I was fortunate enough to have teach me in high school on three separate occasions. Ivan Boyer taught for more than 40 years in public high schools. He taught mostly English and history, which remain passions of his today. In fact, I constantly get messages on my phone from mum and dad, who watch my Facebook page with some interest, which is a bit unnerving.

They like to write to me to correct my grammar, my punctuation and my spelling. I have actually stopped using the words 'fewer' and 'less' because my mum has me so confused about which is the right one to use in which situation that I do not use either of them anymore, just to make sure that I do not make a mistake and get an embarrassing SMS from my mother telling me to change my Facebook page.

As I said, I was lucky enough to be taught on three occasions by my father. You might think that was potentially an awkward situation to be placed in, but I did not find that to be the case. I enjoyed it greatly. As you would with any good teacher, I learnt a lot and I respect what my father was able to impart to me. He was certainly what would be referred to now as an old-school teacher. He put a lot of stock in the fundamentals of learning, particularly English, around writing, sentence structure and how to form a coherent sentence.

One thing that he has always been really big on and that he has impressed upon me is the power of brevity. As I get older and in this role that I now find myself in, there is no doubt that the ability or skill to communicate something in plain English and using—and I am going to break my own rule—as few words as possible is a very important skill, particularly in the job that we perform here, where we are trying to communicate a message that is sometimes a complex one to so many people.

I think the most important thing that my father gave me, both as a teacher and as my dad, was a love of reading. This has been a lifelong gift. In this place, there are many parents of young children, which is great to see because it helps make sure that we are in touch with the priorities and challenges of the communities we represent.

However, I am sure everyone agrees that it takes time and devotion to impart that gift of reading to your children. It is not necessarily an easy thing to do, and now we lead busier lives than ever before. Many households that are dual-parent households have both those parents working and of course for single-parent households it is even more difficult to find the time to spend with your children to do the kind of reading needed to instil in them that love of reading that means when they get older, and perhaps finish their studies, they do not stop reading but keep doing it just for the love of it.

Sometimes in my life I have gone away from reading a book. I have decided, for whatever reason, that I did not have the time, and these days it is also very easy to sit down and watch whatever streaming service you might have a subscription to instead of picking up a book, but I have always come back to it. It is great to have a conversation with a family member or a parent or a friend about whatever book they are reading at the time, and get inspiration about what you might like to read. I am forever grateful to my father for giving me that love of reading.

For all those reasons, and all the reasons that have been very well set out by previous speakers this morning, teachers deserve our respect. They also deserve our acknowledgement that, more than ever before, we ask more of our teachers. Because of the busy lives parents have, more than ever before we are asking our teachers to do more things in their workplace than just teach our kids.

I echo the words of the deputy leader, the member for Port Adelaide, when she touched upon the enterprise bargaining negotiations currently underway between the state government and our teachers. I will only make a few brief comments about the EB process, but on occasions I have been disappointed to read that there are some who have tried to characterise these negotiations as being only about money for teachers. That is certainly not the case, although paying our teachers the wage they deserve is really important. There are other things that are important as well, things like class sizes. It is one thing to stand in this place and very easily spout motherhood statements about how teaching should be one of the most respected and rewarded professions, but it is another thing entirely to actually make that a reality.

The observation made on countless occasions by my father, as he progressed through his career towards the end, was that he was spending a greater and greater proportion of his time in the classroom managing behaviour and less time teaching. He was also very frustrated that he thought parents were increasingly siding with their children and attacking teachers when that teacher spoke to the parent about what might be some learning difficulties their child had or about some poor behaviour.

He always said to me that when he started the job, in the early 1970s I think it was, when a teacher called a parent and said, 'Listen, Johnny's acting up in the classroom, he's not paying attention, he's not doing his work. Would you help me in speaking with Johnny and doing something about it?' the response was usually, 'Yes, we accept your advice that we need to do something.' In his later years as a teacher, on many occasions he had been abused by parents who said, 'Well, if Johnny's not behaving in the classrooms it's your fault. You're the teacher. You're supposed to be doing something about it. Why are you asking me to do something? We pay you as a teacher to fix it.' He found that very disappointing.

For my father, and I know for many other teachers, teaching was very much a calling and a vocation. Of course, over that more than 40 years he had many opportunities to become an administrator of some description in a school, and that would undoubtedly have meant more money for him, but what he always said was that he did not choose to go into the profession to be an administrator. He certainly did not choose the profession for the money either. He stuck to those words and he stuck to that commitment and remained in the classroom all the way through to the very end.

I accept that my father was of the old school category, but I discussed with him the commitment made earlier this year by the Leader of the Opposition and the Deputy Leader of the Opposition around banning mobile phone use in classrooms and got his thoughts on that. He was certainly a supporter. I have also made an effort in my role as a local member of parliament to speak to principals and teachers in the north-eastern suburbs about what they think about this commitment and I have been pleased to hear that there is broad support for that.

In that vein, I encourage members of this place to use our positions not only to do the enjoyable and easy thing—that is, to attend all the school events, the graduations, the sporting events, have photos taken and meet teachers and parents and staff—but also to use the position of influence that we have in here to work out what we can do to make it easier for teachers who are out on the front line teaching our next generation and to make sure that the next Ivan Boyers can spend their time teaching in the classroom and not managing children's behaviour. We owe it to them to do that.

The Hon. T.J. WHETSTONE (Chaffey—Minister for Primary Industries and Regional Development) (12:40): I, too, rise to support an excellent motion from the member for Elder. Importantly, this motion recognises in a small way the people who play such a huge part in our lives, whether it be growing up as school students, as young children in kindergarten, or as primary school students or secondary school students.

I note that we have a number of schoolchildren in the gallery now. The motion recognises the important part our teachers play in our lives, not only as a teachers but as mentors, coaches and people who instil values into students. I have many fond memories of growing up in the regions of South Australia, then following my mother to Adelaide, attending the Paringa Park Primary School at Brighton, and further moving to Henley Beach and attending Henley High.

I have some very fond memories from along the way. I urge all members in this chamber to reflect on their memories. Some are good and some are bad, but they are all memories etched into the way we walk life in today's society. I have fond memories of many teachers, but one in particular at Henley High was my tech teacher, Roger Rowe. He came up to me one day during class and said, 'Whetstone, it's time. Here's your letter. Go and get yourself an apprenticeship,' so I did.

It is probably one of my greatest memories of exiting school and going into the workforce. It is a memory I cherish. Forty years later, I met my tech teacher, Roger Rowe, over at Port Lincoln. He left teaching and became a property developer. He is also a professional fisherman and a farmer, so his walk of life certainly changed and became more diverse. On reflection, we had some very good catch-ups.

We look at the way in which teachers influence our lives. I have memories of good teachers, good mentors and sports coaches. They were also great community people. As has been pointed out in a number of contributions made here, it is about the legacy they leave and the values they instil. I have now moved into a representative role. I have over 30 schools in Chaffey. I try to make sure that I get around to all of those schools on an annual basis, whether it is to attend an assembly or a presentation or whether it is to present an award to a student who has contributed to that school in some way. I leave up to the school what they would like to give the student the award for. It has proved very successful, and it gives me greater opportunity for connection with the students and with the school as well.

As I said, I have a lot of schools in my electorate, as many of the regional MPs do. It creates a lot of travel, but it also gives me a greater connection not only to the students in the school but also to the teachers. It is about understanding what life is like as a regional teacher and understanding the needs of the school in order to give the students the best experience and the best education that they can get. In reflecting on teachers and mentoring, I would like also to focus on teaching outside of school—that is, we are always learning. Whether it is a mentor or a teacher within the workplace or in sport, there is always a reflection on learning.

The member for Wright has outlined what we expect of teachers nowadays: we expect more. People have busier lifestyles now more than ever, and so we often depend on the teacher not only to instil values but, to the best of their ability, to give our students the skills that they need. They transfer their knowledge through their capacity to teach and educate a student in the values of life. This gives a teacher the ability to be very passionate about their job. I also think that having the ability to be a good communicator is very important.

Visiting many of the schools in my electorate, I was very proud of some of the great awards that have recently been given out. Obviously, teachers get recognition for outstanding service and outstanding capacity in some shape or form. I want to acknowledge some of the outstanding teachers in the electorate of Chaffey, who are continually recognised at the Public Education Awards.

Justine Fogden from Loxton High School is an outstanding teacher. She is the winner of the Secondary Teacher of the Year award for 2019 here in South Australia, and she also received the Agricultural Teachers Association of SA's award for excellence. Congratulations to Justine. She does an outstanding job. Loxton High School is a very highly recommended regional school. They have a number of strengths, not only in academics and education but also in sports. They have won the sports day points award for more than 30 years. It is an outstanding achievement.

Brenden Baldock from Glossop High School is a Secondary Teacher of the Year finalist in South Australia's 2019 Public Education Awards. Gale Hansen, director of the Renmark Children's Centre, was recognised at a convention at the Adelaide Convention Centre for her 30 years of service to the field of public education.

Mai Schloithe from Berri Primary School was awarded a scholarship through her role as the Vietnamese teacher at Berri Primary School as part of the state government's Languages in Schools initiative. These awards recognise the outstanding teachers who are dedicated to inspiring students through exceptional mentoring. I was pleased to see the Riverland teachers acknowledged by their peers for their outstanding commitment to and enthusiasm for the profession.

Our local students, particularly in Chaffey, have a very exciting future. We have a very good public education system here in South Australia: it is the sheer dedication and commitment that these teachers bring to mentoring, teaching, instilling values and making sure that our students have a lasting memory of a great education system. We have to acknowledge that not all students have a great experience in our education institutions, but, by and large, all the stories in the contributions presented here today are about the great work that our teachers do in mentoring and teaching our students.

We were all students once and we are always learning—we understand that. In those first years going through school, we are instilled with the memories and the skills that we take for granted in many walks of life today. I commend the motion to the house. It is an acknowledgement of what teachers present in today's society.

The Hon. A. PICCOLO (Light) (12:49): I would like to say a few words in support of this motion. I will not repeat all the fine words spoken by other members already, but the first point I would like to put on the record is my thanks to all the teachers in my community, who do a wonderful job in developing and nurturing young people in our community to be good citizens and to be the best that they can be.

I would also like to put on record my thanks to the teachers who taught me. I am sure I probably was not the easiest student to deal with at times. Certainly, in my early days when I started school, I could not actually speak a word of English, so that would have been quite challenging for the teachers. That said, I do not recall the experience, so it must have been less traumatic for me, but perhaps more traumatic for them.

I would like to thank Ms Bouchier, who was my prep school teacher and whom I met some years later. In terms of teachers, I would also like to acknowledge John Chambers, who was my economics teacher in years 11 and 12. He was a great teacher. Unfortunately, he passed away from cancer some years ago. He was not only a great teacher but a great mentor and friend, to the extent that at that school where I went to school, Gawler High School, I now sponsor an award in his name.

One thing I would like to quickly touch on is the complexity of the work involved for teachers these days. Teachers have a whole range of complexities and compliance issues they have to deal with. There is one thing I hear from teachers in terms of the parts of their work they do not like doing: they love teaching, they love the interaction with young people, they love the inquiring minds, but the bureaucracy is really making life difficult for our teachers. I understand that there is a whole range of issues around child protection, etc., but I do sometimes question the level of reporting required of teachers and what purpose that actually fulfils.

The other thing I would like to touch upon is that, for whatever reason that I do not understand, teachers in our society—and I am talking about Anglo-Australian society predominantly—do not seem to command the respect from the community that they do in other cultures. If you go to Europe, teaching is a highly regarded profession. In Asia, teaching is a highly regarded profession, yet in Anglo societies, for whatever reason, teachers are not respected or valued as much as they should be. They do play an important role. They play an important role in developing not only young people but also the culture of our society. I think sometimes we forget how important they are.

I would also like to put on record my thanks to the Adelaide North Special School, which does a wonderful job teaching young people with quite profound disabilities and invited me to share World Teachers' Day with them last week. I would also like to put on the record my thanks to St Patrick's Technical College. I will be sharing their celebrations for World Teachers' Day this Friday. Like other people in this chamber, I think the least we can do is actually acknowledge the contribution teachers make to the wellbeing of our society.

Mr TEAGUE (Heysen) (12:53): I am glad to have the chance to rise to support the motion of the member for Elder in noting that 25 October is World Teachers' Day, as celebrated in Australia, and to take the chance to acknowledge the achievements of teachers across South Australia, supporting, as they do, the next generation.

I want to take the chance, in particular, to highlight the extraordinary achievement, which was marked on 16 October just recently, as has already been recognised by the Minister for Education in this place, as well as by our federal Minister for Education, the Hon. Dan Tehan MP, of Sarah Finney of Stirling East Primary School, who was presented with Australia's highest science teaching honour, the Prime Minister's Prize for Excellence in Science Teaching in Primary Schools.

She was presented with that award by the Prime Minister, and it is indeed significant recognition for a tremendous science teacher. The students of Stirling East Primary School and the Stirling East Primary School community can be proud that the science teacher of the year recipient of the prize for excellence at the primary school level is among the teachers at Stirling East.

Sarah Finney has been a strong advocate for science teaching over the time she has taught at Stirling East. In particular, she has shone a bright light on Science Week activities, she has led a particular focus on STEM, leading a STEM club at lunchtimes at school and she has guided teaching staff at school through the opportunities that are available to their students. It is certainly a special event to be recognised as a teacher of excellence and, in this case, to be singled out for particular recognition by the Prime Minister of Australia and ministers for education, state and federal, and I wish to join that group in recognising this extraordinary achievement of Sarah Finney.

It would be remiss of me to fail to take the opportunity on an occasion such as this to once again note my appreciation personally of and to recognise my mother's lifetime's work as a teacher in secondary school education in South Australia. I know she has had an extraordinarily fulfilling and rewarding career as a teacher, together with colleagues over a long period of time and what are now generations of students who have benefited. So to all teachers on this occasion I very much commend this motion to the house.

Mrs POWER (Elder) (12:57): I thank all members who have made a contribution on this motion today. I would also like to especially acknowledge the Minister for Education. As I mentioned, I believe quality education often stems from the passion, confidence and support structures surrounding teachers. In terms of support structures, the Minister for Education has indeed made a profound positive impact in his short time as minister, with record investments in education and the successful passage of the Education and Children's Services Act 2019.

We know that the Education and Children's Services Act, which was passed this year, modernises legislation for education and children's services, and the minister oversaw key improvements for governing councils, safe learning and working environments, and employment provisions for staff, amongst other things.

In addition, the Minister for Education has also delivered a landmark deal with Telstra to ensure high-speed internet in public schools across South Australia. For any of us who grew up when the internet was a new thing and can remember dial-up—you remember the frustrations of seeing things load or your connection dropping—we can really appreciate the importance of quality high-speed internet, not only as individuals but certainly for teachers and students who are learning. So it is absolutely exciting for us as a government to see that being delivered.

In closing, I reiterate our thanks and appreciation to all teachers and school staff right across South Australia for their dedication and hard work. They are indeed shaping our community, state and country, and they are indeed shaping the future of not only individuals but our society more generally. So thank you to all the teachers and school staff out there.

Motion carried.

Sitting suspended 13:00 to 14:00.

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