Page 3098 - Week 10 - Thursday, 15 August 2013
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minister for education expects to provide an additional 20 to 30 training places, which equates to between $8,000 and $12,000 per place for a certificate III. I know the inflated view of training costs now prevalent in the CIT for some diploma courses, but at $8,000 to $12,000 per placement this does seem a little high. I would hope that the directorate and minister can strive for a better outcome and value for this money.
In preschool education, under the preschool matters initiative, the government is to allocate grants of up to $500 to support the engagement of parents and carers in activities that promote participation in preschool education. While it is good to see preschools getting attention, and while it is important that they are well integrated into the primary school model, I wonder whether some additional money may be better spent on, or moneys reallocated to, supporting the preschool itself.
Many preschools are doing it tough and funding is sorely needed to upgrade amenities such as ovens, fridges and microwaves, all of which, in most cases, are so old that they would not meet strict OHS requirements today. These items are left for P&Cs and school boards to scrounge and scrape to update, when their efforts could be more productively directed to other things.
During the estimates hearings it was revealed that $2 million had been allocated to provide up to an additional 40 new childcare spaces. On a simple mathematic equation, this seems a lot of money for a small outcome and does not appear to provide value for money. I suspect it is yet another example of the amount of waste that this government has displayed.
As shadow minister for education, I take my responsibilities in this portfolio seriously. In the last 12 years the education portfolio has had five Labor ministers. I have seen three arrive and two go in my five years in the Assembly. It is interesting to note that in the last 12 years the Labor Party has been served by Mr Corbell, Ms Gallagher, Mr Barr, Dr Bourke and now Ms Burch as ministers for education. At that rate, that leaves only three on the other side of the chamber, and two of them are present here this morning. Ms Porter, Mr Gentleman and Ms Berry, I believe you can look forward to getting a ministerial post in education.
Dr Bourke: Breadth of experience is always to be valued.
MR DOSZPOT: Dr Bourke, coming from you, that is a very good comment. On a serious note—
Ms Burch: The rest wasn’t serious?
MR DOSZPOT: The rest was very serious, Ms Burch, but on the matter that I was just referring to about the number of ministers, I would hope that the Labor Party does take the role of ministers for education seriously, rather than rotating them through this revolving door at such a frequent pace, because the experience that you gain in a few years could be used to better effect in bettering our education system, as I am sure you are finding out at the moment.
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