Libs splash training cash as Nick gets Greek on Gardner
Education and training – and the seat of Liberal Education spokesman John Gardner – were today opened as new battlefronts in the fight for power at next month’s state election.
Nick Xenophon (left) with Morialta candidate James Sadler today.
The state Liberals have put political heat on Labor’s vocational training travails with a $100 million commitment to create more than 20,000 new training places.
The money, leader Steven Marshall said today, would secure matched funding from the Commonwealth’s Skilling Australians Fund “to support a range of initiatives that will create an additional 20,800 apprenticeships and traineeships over the next four years”.
The Opposition has also pledged to establish “at least one new technical college in Adelaide’s north-western suburbs with a focus on encouraging students to prepare for work in the Defence sector”.
Declaring the package a “massive reinvestment in vocational education and training in SA”, Marshall returned to his rhetoric from the 2014 election campaign, saying: “Labor’s defunding has now put us in a dangerous jobs crisis.”
“Labor have been cutting back – the amount of state money going into training has been falling dramatically [and] there’s a looming skills crisis… every industry sector is saying the same thing.”
Liberal Education spokesman John Gardner was on hand for the announcement, but his mind might have been in his north-eastern seat of Morialta, where Nick Xenophon was unveiling his SA Best candidate – as flagged by InDaily last week.
Capping off his candidacy with a $1.5 million commitment to an upgrade of Athelstone’s Eastern United soccer ground, Uraidla-based former teacher, BBC journalist and “digital education consultant” James Sadler declared himself a “fair, I think 50-50” chance of snaring the vulnerable seat, much of which falls within the Hills footprint occupied by NXT’s federal Mayo stronghold.
“It’s going to take a lot of hard work but I think Morialta could become a feather in the SA Best cap,” he said.
James Sadler says Labor has dropped the ball on Education. Photo: Tony Lewis / InDaily
Sadler, who co-authored SA Best’s education blueprint, released this morning, admitted he also had some Labor connections.
“I was an employee in Mike Rann’s first iteration in 2003 – I wrote Trish White’s speeches (but) since I left I think they’ve dropped the ball,” he said.
There’s a difference between pedagogy and heutagogy and andragogy – I hate to get all Greek on you…
He declared Gardner “essentially education-lite”.
“He’s quite happy to let teachers ‘do the pedagogy’, as he says… but an experienced teacher like myself at least understands that there’s a difference between pedagogy and heutagogy and andragogy – I hate to get all Greek on you, but there are different types of learning that are both dependent, independent and interdependent [so Gardner] doesn’t truly understand the nuances of what it takes to be great education state.”
SA Best vowed to help “rethink the way students learn” with an education manifesto that ranges from the cosmetic (the Ministry and Department of Education would become the Ministry and Department of Learning) to the more substantive, albeit with little specific detail.
The party pledges to reduce the centralised bureaucracy and administration and re-allocate resources “to where they are most needed and will make the most difference, including needs-based loadings”.
It says it will review incentives, support mechanisms and infrastructure “to overcome the challenges associated with geographic location and communities with concentrations of disadvantage”.
Xenophon has also vowed to review the findings and recommendations of the Debelle Royal Commission – another Labor Achilles heel – and “determine why some recommendations were not enacted”.
“Particular attention will be paid to the role of school governing councils and whether they have meaningful authority or act merely as an advisory board,” the manifesto states.
The broad and multi-pronged commitment also highlights job security for teachers and ‘Digital Literacy’ programs for 10-12-year olds “as they transition from devices as platforms for games to the world of social media and potential risk of cyber bullying”.
Significantly, SA Best backs the Liberals’ push to transition year 7 into secondary school.
Gardner maintains he is confident of retaining his seat, despite widespread concerns within Liberal ranks that it is in danger of turning orange, with NXT polling strongly in the relevant booths at the last federal election.
“I’ve done a lot of doorknocking over 10 years and I’ll keep doing that,” he said.
Read the Liberals’ policy document:
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