Joanne Ryan (Lalor, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I rise today, a little aghast, to speak on the motion moved by the member for Cowan. As most people here will know, I came from school education before becoming a member of this place. I raise the point that, under the previous Labor government, we had a federal review of education to see what it would take to improve the educational outcomes of students across this country. That review found that equity in funding was the critical issue that needed to be addressed in education. So I find myself here in this place discussing something that, I think, was realistically an issue in schools a decade ago.

Initial concerns around the weight of bags were addressed in schools in a variety of ways. In the school where I was working it was addressed by a timetable change, not driven by the weight of bags but driven by students' ability to concentrate and by trying to build resilience of study in our students. In the school that I was working in we took a decent amount of time to study this. We determined that we would move from 50-minute sessions to 100-minute sessions, in high schools, to ensure that students had time to connect with what they were learning, time to build the collaborative approaches, as well as time to build in individual concentration and focused writing practice for, in most cases, 20-minute periods in that 100 minutes. One of the side effects of this, of course, was that students only did three subjects across a given day and not six, which of course reduced the load in their schoolbags by 50 per cent, if the timetable was done productively.

Another thing that had an influence on the weight of schoolbags was students not bringing a change of clothes for sport but wearing their sport uniform on the day that they were to do physical education or sport, which of course also reduced the weight they were carrying in their bags.

The most important thing that happened, and I am sure people in this place remember, was the Building the Education Revolution, which caused a digital disruption in our schools across this country with the introduction of personalised computers for students. We have heard a lot of talk in the chamber this morning about laptops. People may not realise that most schools introduced netbooks and iPads which, of course, weigh a lot less than a laptop. Of course, Building the Education Revolution not only put more desktop computers into schools but it also broke, if you like, a pattern between textbooks and digital technologies and that has now been going on for some time.

So I am very surprised that it is still an issue in schools across this country. I would have thought that most had moved on. I would have thought that most school communities had addressed this issue some time ago, because it is 15 years since most textbooks had CDs delivered with them, providing the capacity for students to put the CD in their bag and take it to school.

But I would raise this matter. It is at least seven years that publishers have provided interactive online content. It is not looking out to 2030. Online textbooks and the ability to use the interactive websites that go with them have been available to schools for at least seven years and most schools are using those resources very wisely. Of course, there are an enormous number of schools across the country and perhaps some in remote and regional areas are not getting to this place as quickly as others, but I am still surprised that this has not moved much further than it has.

I remember, as we all remember, carrying The Web of Life and the heavy maths textbook in my schoolbag on my back. It is a long time since I did year 12. Backpacks were not de rigueur in that day. We carried bags that we slung over one shoulder, off one strap, and backpacks were introduced to stop that practice and ensure that both straps were going over children's backs. I do not think this is something the federal government can actually enforce. I hear a lot about a nanny state and then find myself here talking about things that are well and truly in the purview of parents and in the purview of schools. I am surprised, because what is in the purview of those opposite today is to improve the educational outcomes of students across this country, and I call on them to pay attention to that.

Debate adjourned.

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