Tuesday, 30 July 2024

Education system

Ann-Marie HERMANS (South-Eastern Metropolitan) (18:01): (1001) My adjournment is for the attention of the Minister for Education. The action I seek is for this Labor government under Premier Allan to significantly reduce student absenteeism rates in Victorian schools by addressing the needs and causes of student disengagement and the increase of teacher stress in our school system and demonstrating how they are meeting these outcomes. This includes actioning the Department of Education Strategic Plan 2023–27 objectives, which are (1) to raise the development of three- and four-year-old children prior to attending school, (2) to raise learning, development, engagement and wellbeing outcomes for all Victorian students and (3) to provide equitable and inclusive schooling for all – not just some of the loud lobby groups, but all Victorian students. I note that with this plan the Labor government has irresponsibly put out a non-environmentally-friendly and expensive glossy 20-page outline on education in Victoria. While the paper looks very pretty, it can be a little bit convoluted and confusing, because how these objectives are going to be directed and measured is very unclear.

Minister, we know that the Victorian Department of Education has confirmed that Victorian years 7 to 10 students lost an average of 29.2 school days across 2022–23, while students in years 11 and 12 lost an average of 23.4 school days over the same period. The Department of Education data confirms – and this is quite a staggering figure – that 1,136,946 days of school were missed by year 7 students across Victoria in 2023. I would have to say that this is a significant failure of this Labor government. This is an increase of almost 41 per cent compared to 2019. In my electorate in Casey there has been a dramatic increase in student absenteeism. In fact it is up 53.8 per cent since the 2019 figure in Victoria. Yes, we have to acknowledge that the COVID lockdowns in Victoria – in fact Melbourne was the most locked down city in the world under this Labor government – had a massive impact on the mental health of our students, but questions arise in this whole blame game for this undisciplined Labor government about how it is going to fix this. With 40 per cent of 16- to 24-year-olds in Victoria reporting a mental health disorder – 50 per cent in the three years from 2021 – this government has a problem, and this needs to be fixed.