Industrial action likely to hit local schools, says union
Kalgoorlie-Boulder's public schools are likely to be affected by industrial action by education staff announced at the weekend, according to State School Teachers Union WA president Anne Gisborne.
Ms Gisborne said WA Premier Colin Barnett had rejected the union's plea to reconsider its proposed cuts to the education sector, which will remove 500 jobs from the system.
There are no details of the scope of industrial action in the Goldfields, but Ms Gisborne said the action would be "across the board".
A total of 150 education assistants stand to be removed from the system, which prompted an outcry from the community and protests on the steps of Parliament.
The State Government and the Education Department have said there will be a reallocation of resources, with staff sent to schools where they will be most efficiently used. St Mary's Primary School principal Mark Panaia believes regional WA would benefit from more education assistants, an outcome unlikely to occur in the near future given the cuts.
Mr Panaia said education assistants were particularly important for students with special needs, who will be dealt a further blow when funding for support programs for such students will be cut by a third.
"If there is a child with a specific disability there is definitely a need there," Mr Panaia said.
"(Students with special needs) are cropping up more and more in our regional areas, in private schools as well as the State system.
"You can't expect the teacher to teach the rest of the class when a child with a specific disability needs a lot of attention. We need those assistants to help us with that."
Mr Panaia said a reallocation of resources could be warranted on a case-by-case basis, such as if an education assistant was not actually contributing to a child's education.
But although he said his experience was confined to the Catholic sector, he had rarely encountered such a situation.
"Our education assistants are very dedicated staff and they're very much needed," he said.
"At one stage they were used for banal activities… but these days we look at them as a little more than just a secretary for the teachers.
"They actually work with the children according to their educational needs and to the needs of the teachers in the classroom as well.
"The more one-to-one contact they (students) can have with either a teacher or an education assistant, the better it is for them in terms of their learning."
