Northern Metropolitan Region
Adem SOMYUREK (Northern Metropolitan) (12:42): (382) My constituency question is directed to the hardworking and competent Minister for Education, who has been badly let down by a Premier who does not care about the education of working-class children. I have received a number of calls from constituents following media reports that Craigieburn Secondary College staff have asked the Department of Education for a four-day school week due to staff shortages at the school. One of those calls was from a young mum who is worried that a four-day school week will create further stress on her family finances, which these days are at breaking point as it is. A four-day school week, she says, will mean that she will need to either somehow absorb the cost of a carer for her six-year-old daughter or reduce her employment to four days, which is not financially viable. I request the minister assure my constituents with children at Craigieburn Secondary College that the government will rectify the teacher shortage at the school so that the school will not have to adopt a four-day school week.