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House of Assembly - Fifty-Fifth Parliament, First Session (55-1)
2023-06-01 Daily Xml
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Yahl Primary School

Mr BELL (Mount Gambier) (14:35): My question is to the Minister for Education. Can the minister inform the house of his recent visit to Yahl Primary School in the electorate of Mount Gambier?

The SPEAKER: Minister, I'm keen to hear.

The Hon. B.I. BOYER (Wright—Minister for Education, Training and Skills) (14:35): I thank the member for Mount Gambier for his important question. I did indeed get an opportunity recently to join the member for Mount Gambier at Yahl Primary School, which for those who are unaware is a picturesque little primary school in the South-East. I had the opportunity to take a tour there with the member for Mount Gambier; the principal, Chris Morrison; and the governing council chair, Brad Crisp.

It is always great to see governing council chairs, particularly in regional areas, take the time away from their work and their jobs, in this case like Brad did, to come along and introduce themselves and say hello and proudly show the minister the school and of course take the opportunity, as the member for Mount Gambier always does and principals always do—and I would be disappointed if they did otherwise—to tell me some of the things that we could do to improve the learning environment and the school's surrounds for the kids who go to school there.

Yahl has 110 students. It was established way back in 1868 and I have to say that it is very, very similar to the primary school that I attended across the border an hour away, which was built in 1863 and had about 40 students. I do have a bit of an affinity for the young people who go to school at Yahl and the parents and all the staff who are trying to make sure that the quality of education the young people at Yahl get and other schools like it—and there are many in the member for Mount Gambier's patch—is of the same quality that students in metropolitan areas get.

We started off our tour with a really beautiful smoking ceremony. I love to see our schools doing that and making sure they involve local Aboriginal people—Indigenous people—and teaching our kids from a very early age the importance of that. Then we got into having a bit of a look around at some of the very ageing infrastructure at Yahl Primary School.

I have to be honest, there was a fair bit of work that needs to be done there. We have a lot of demountable buildings with undergrowth, moss growing in lots of places, stormwater that was running off into different parts of the school where it shouldn't have been, a damaged roof and a lot of damp in different spots as well. We also saw firsthand the state of the covered outdoor learning area, which I could only say has an unbelievable amount of bird droppings sitting on top of it, so there are a few things for us to do there.

As soon as I finished the tour with the member for Mount Gambier, I went back and spoke to the department around what we can do and I'm pleased to say that they are already taking action in terms of the stormwater following the visit, which of course is really important. I'm hoping that I might be able to come back into this place soon and update the member for Mount Gambier and other members of this chamber as well around other action that I hope we can take around Yahl and other schools like it.

But I do just want to take the opportunity that the member for Mount Gambier has given me to put on the record that, as someone who went to a school just like Yahl, which was the same school my father, grandfather and great-grandfather went to, I do have a real affinity for regional students. I remember very well the feeling when I went to school of jealousy, you might say, of what metropolitan schools got that we didn't get and I know the feeling is exactly the same still now right around Australia, not just in South Australia.

I always said to myself that, if I ever got the opportunity like I'm lucky enough to have now to be responsible and a decision-maker for schools and regional schools, I will do everything I can to make sure that we offer the same levels of support to regional schools that we offer to metropolitan schools. Yahl is a fantastic example of a school that has battled along without much investment over many years and I'm hoping that that is something this government can turn around.

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