Tony Zappia (Makin, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

On Friday, 12 August, I attended the opening of the new maths, science and electronics trade training education facilities at Para Hills High School, Salisbury East High School and the joint campus electronics trades training centre at Golden Grove High School. The Golden Grove centre serves as a joint campus facility for the co-located schools of Golden Grove High School, Pedare Christian College and Gleeson College. All of those schools now have modern, state of the art maths, science and electronics learning facilities. For students and teachers at those schools and in the region, these new facilities will make a huge difference to secondary school education outcomes and career opportunities.

The IT electronics and advanced manufacturing sectors have been, and continue to be, of vital importance to the South Australian economy and to the creation of employment opportunities. Many of these industry sectors are centred around the RAAF defence facilities and DSTO complex at Edinburgh, Technology Park and the University of South Australia at Mawson Lakes, and the GMH automotive plant at Elizabeth. Over the years, the growth of these sectors has created considerable new job opportunities. The lack of suitably educated students from the region, particularly in the fields of maths and science, has meant the new jobs that have been created have been taken up by suitably qualified people from elsewhere.

In recent years local high schools, the University of South Australia at Mawson Lakes and the defence and manufacturing industry sectors have been working collaboratively in engaging local students in the maths and science based career paths. The new science based facilities at the Para Hills High, Salisbury East High and Golden Grove Joint Campus provide an invaluable boost to that goal. The facilities will not only enable the students to gain practical, hands-on experience in the science fields but will also very likely attract more students into this area of education. What was just as inspiring as the new facilities was that at each school the staff were outstanding educators and mentors for the students. It is very encouraging to see at the schools representatives from industry and from the University of South Australia, who have taken a keen interest in the development of the new school maths and science centres and who will undoubtedly continue to work in partnership with the schools to create rewarding career opportunities for the students.

I take this opportunity to commend the principals of each of the schools: Janette Scott from Para Hills High School; Sue George Duiff from Salisbury East High School; Phil Lewis from Gleeson College; Michael Millard from Pedare Christian College; and Paul Wilson from Golden Grove High School. I also thank their respective school council members for making the decision to pursue these facilities for their schools and, in doing so, responding to the future needs of the region and supporting the best outcomes for young people within their schools. All of these new facilities were only made possible because of the government's BER funding. All delivered value for money, all have provided education facilities relevant to today's needs and all will serve not only today's generation of students but students for years to come.