Question Without Notice No. 48 asked in the Legislative Council on 14 March 2018 by Hon Colin De Grussa
Parliament: 40 Session: 1
48. Hon COLIN de GRUSSA to the Minister for Education and Training:
I refer to staffing arrangements within the Department of Education and the level of curriculum support specifically for agricultural education.
(1) Have there been any new positions opened and/or appointments made within the department to assist the delivery of agricultural education?
(2) If yes to (1), what are the roles and responsibilities of any of these positions to appointments?
(3) How will the Department of Education collaborate with other agencies to ensure agricultural education is not diluted further in WA?
Hon SUE ELLERY replied:
I thank the honourable member for some notice of the question.
(1) The level of curriculum support for agricultural education is unchanged. A public service level 7 position remains in place for this purpose.
(2) Not applicable.
(3) Collaboration between the Department of Education and other agencies has been strengthened. This includes recent meetings at director general level of the Department of Education and the Department of Primary Industry and Regional Development. I might add that that is because both ministers asked the two departments to start working closer together. We gave them some examples of where we thought there were gaps, in particular, for example, students in regional areas wanting to look for career opportunities in, say, horticulture where there are agricultural research facilities available but no connections between the two, to make sure there are opportunities for work experience and the like. We also want to work to strengthen how the two departments work more closely in formal education. Senior officers in these departments will continue to collaborate to further strengthen agricultural education. It should be noted that in 2018 there are record student enrolments at the five agricultural colleges—a clear indication that agricultural education continues to go from strength to strength.