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House of Assembly - Fifty-Fifth Parliament, First Session (55-1)
2024-05-01 Daily Xml
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Schools, Specialist Support

Mr McBRIDE (MacKillop) (14:22): My question is to the Minister for Education. Can the minister please advise what the government is doing to ensure every school in South Australia has sufficient resources and specialist support appropriately meeting the needs of the students and learning issues? With your leave, Mr Speaker, and the leave of the house, I will explain.

Leave granted.

Mr McBRIDE: I have had a number of constituents come to my office and question whether the government is providing enough in-class support for children with special needs.

The Hon. B.I. BOYER (Wright—Minister for Education, Training and Skills) (14:23): I thank the member for MacKillop for this very important question. He has touched upon what is not just a topical issue at the moment. There have been a couple of notable issues of the kind that the member for MacKillop refers to, which have been in the press in the last week or so—very difficult circumstances for the students involved. I think, in the two cases I am thinking of, it is primary-age children who have some additional learning needs.

In many respects, it is a reflection of the make-up and complexity of classrooms and schools in the 21st century. It has been a very big shift and it is only accelerating in terms of the complexity of the classroom. When we talk about that, we mean a range of things. We mean the number of students who might have a disability and the number of students who might be neurodivergent and might have a diagnosis or otherwise of autism or ADHD, or something else like that that presents some challenges in terms of them being able to learn in the same way that other students might.

Last year we went through a very protracted enterprise bargaining negotiation, which I know people in this place will remember, and we spoke about issues around workload and how the role of an educator and a teacher has become harder. Without wanting to diminish from the obvious anguish that parents like those ones feel—and the one in particular that the member for MacKillop is referring to—we all feel the same way about our own kids when they are struggling in any way at school. I don't in any way seek to criticise parents who are just fighting for their kids when their kids are doing it hard. I would expect all parents to do exactly the same thing, but we also need to understand that schools are trying to do their best in changed and increasingly difficult and complex situations.

We are trying to lead the way here in South Australia in many different ways in terms of how we meet those challenges, how we better support neurodivergent students, how we better support families who have children in the public education system, and also the Catholic and independent education systems, who have some more of those challenges themselves. I would point to a couple of things that we have put in place just in the first two years. They apply equally to the schools in the member for MacKillop's area as well, around autism inclusion teachers.

We have an Assistant Minister for Autism, the Hon. Emily Bourke in the other place, who is doing fantastic work. We have autism inclusion teachers at all our public primary schools, who are there to really be the champions for those young people at those schools who have either diagnosed autism or otherwise, because we know that probably not just nationwide but internationally, schooling systems have been slow to keep up with this change. We have been slow to add in the extra supports and resources that teachers, SSOs, principals and parents need for kids who might be neurodivergent in our classrooms.

I can tell you that as someone who has been around the education system and department for a number of years, and I know that the member for Morialta would agree, there has been a real shift in terms of the notifications that ministers get now around incidents at schools. The number of notifications that we get now around cases of dysregulation from young people has vastly increased from what it might have even been in 10 years, and that is presenting challenges for an overworked, tired workforce that is trying to deal with those more complex classrooms, and coming off the back of a very difficult couple of years with COVID as well.

We are seeking to put more of those supports in, whether it is more access in the public system to speech pathologists, occupational therapists, and mental health support. We are trying to do all of those things, but it is going to be difficult. I can say to the member for MacKillop and to his constituents that we are trying everything we can in South Australia, and trying to lead the nation in the way that we offer better education care for all students in the public education system.

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