Published on Friday, 2 February 2018 at 12:00:00 AM
The Town of Port Hedland has welcomed the State Government’s recent announcement to inject $7 million into Pilbara education to drive better outcomes, but has called for a greater focus in addressing the specific needs of Port Hedland.
The increased funding announcement was made during a recent visit the Pilbara on Tuesday 30 January, by the Education and Training Minister Sue Ellery and Regional Development Minister Alannah MacTiernan, which included a visit to the Hedland Senior High School.
New initiatives outlined in the multi-million dollar boost include: a focus on boosting students’ attendance and interest in the school, public and private school links, teacher quality, local links and dedicated cultural learning programs for Aboriginal students.
A $1.3 million Jiji programme to improve speech, language and class behaviour in remote East Pilbara schools, along with a $550,000 seed investment initiative to establish a Pilbara Universities Centre, also featured in the announcement.
According to Town of Port Hedland Mayor, Camilo Blanco, the increased funding into education is vital for the region, but is not addressing the underlying issues facing Port Hedland and surrounding regions.
“Whilst we welcome the State Government’s $7 million dollar education boost into the Pilbara, we need to remain clearly focused on what is underpinning the ongoing issues in our schools.
“We have deeper health and social issues facing our town which are having major spin-off effects on families, our schools and the wider community.
“Retaining staff is also a major issue for Employers and losing our permanent population are also key factors. Also, as the largest bulk export port in the world, we are a significant player on the national stage and attracting and retaining staff and families in the town is paramount.
“This problem doesn’t start or stop at the gates of our schools, it reaches every corner of the community.
“Early data results from our recent community engagement surveys, indicate that education, health and safety in the community are top priorities for our town.
“Improving our education system requires considerable investment in a lot of other areas, to achieve real and sustained improvements.
‘We need to tackle the big issues and we need to tackle them fast. We can keep looking at band-aid solutions, or we can address the elephant in the room.”
“We applaud the State Government for moving quality education outcomes for our schools to the top of the agenda in 2018 and look forward to working together across all levels of government, to make real and sustainable change.”
A copy of the announcement can be found at here.
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