Dan Tehan (Wannon, Liberal Party, Minister for Education) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank the member for Boothby for her question. I know she will be very pleased with the fact that 87.6 per cent of students were at school yesterday in South Australia and 99.2 per cent of childcare services are open in South Australia. That is quite an achievement when you think of where we were two months ago when this pandemic started to hit. The fact that we've been able to provide that continuity of education right through the last two months when it comes to childcare and when it comes to schools is something this nation should be extraordinarily proud of. When it comes to the approach that the government has taken, what we have done is based all our policies on expert medical advice. We have listened to the AHPPC, and they have said, right throughout this pandemic, that it's been safe for our schools to be open, with the right protocols in place, and that it's been safe for our childcare centres to be open, with the right protocols in place. That's why we put in place our $1.6 billion Early Childhood Education and Care Relief Package, because we wanted to make sure we were providing the assistance that was needed for our childcare sector so that they could remain open throughout this pandemic.

I say to all those early childhood educators who have been in those childcare centres providing that continuity of care: a very big thank you on behalf of the nation. You've made sure, especially for those vulnerable children who needed the continuity of care and for the children of essential workers, that there was a place where they could go: a centre that they knew and that they could get the care that they needed.

When it comes to schools, everyone in this House should also be incredibly pleased to know that every state and territory now has a plan to ensure our schools are open for face-to-face teaching right across this nation. That will occur by early June. Obviously, we're already seeing that in some states, but now, right across the nation, every state and territory has a plan in place for that face-to-face teaching. Once again, that is something we should be incredibly proud of—that we've been able to achieve this, given what we've been hit with in the last two months by this coronavirus pandemic. We are going to make sure that that continuity of education delivers for students not only this year but also in the future, because we know that, particularly for our year 12 students, they need the certainty to be able to get the ATAR outcome they want and to be able to go on to higher education or vocational education, or to get a job.