Tuesday, 20 December 2022

Northern Metropolitan Region

Samantha RATNAM (Northern Metropolitan) (16:58): (7) My question is for the Minister for Education. I recently had the privilege of visiting the Pavilion School in Epping in my electorate of Northern Metro. The Pavilion is a fantastic school that supports marginalised and at-risk students to re-engage with education, but despite its critical work it is woefully under-resourced. The school supports over 80 students with just two classrooms and no meeting rooms or outdoor facilities. There is so little room for teaching classes that students attend school in shifts of just 2 hours maximum at a time, and around 30 students are on the waiting list for admission. The school desperately needs an expanded site to meet current and future demand, but while the school has been advocating to the Labor government for support, their requests have largely been ignored by previous education ministers, who have taken this community for granted. Minister, will you urgently commit to more funding for the Pavilion School, including a commitment for better facilities and funding?