EDUCATION Minister John Gardner has downplayed Thursday’s teachers strike by saying only around 20pc of the state’s public schools, preschools and children’s centres closed.
Speaking in State Parliament, the minister expressed his gratitude to the workforce that turned up to work Thursday.
“And I give credit to the majority of sites around South Australia that stayed open because they, like the government, decided that children’s needs were at the centre of everything we should be doing and the best interest of every child in every classroom, in every school and preschool in this state should be driving our interest,” Mr Gardner said.
He said he was “very interested” to learn some more information about what the union wanted out of the strike action.
“They have said that it is not about pay, although they have put a pay claim on the table that is about double inflation,” Mr Gardner said.
“They have said that it is about resourcing, even though this government is putting $500m a year more into education and our public schools at the forward estimates than we had when we arrived.”
He said the government had allocated hundreds of millions of dollars extra into the budget over and above those in the budget left by its predecessors.
“The point I make is that we were always at the bargaining table,” the minister said.
