Canterbury Girl's Secondary College
By John Berger
30 AUGUST 2023
My adjournment is for the Minister for Education in the other place Minister Hutchins, and the action I seek is for the minister to join me in visiting Canterbury Girls’ Secondary, an incredible school in my community of Southern Metro, specifically in the electorate of Hawthorn, and one of only five government girls schools in Victoria. Canterbury Girls’ provides a fantastic example of what a good quality education in Southern Metro is like, and it represents the great opportunities for education in my community. The teachers and support and admin staff are second to none, and I am proud to support them.
We back women’s education on this side of the chamber. Earlier this year we held the Trades Fit expo to showcase the array of rewarding and well-paid career opportunities available to women and non-binary students in our state, and we are backing in female and non-binary high school students to choose a career in a trade or a tech-based career. For too long gender-based discrimination has stifled non-males from pursuing a career, and we are fighting to change that. The latest figures from the National Centre for Vocational Education Research shows students in VET secondary schools rose 1.1 per cent to over 52,000 last year. We are the only Australian state to increase its numbers of school students pursuing VET studies, and it is all thanks to the Andrews Labor government’s reforms to senior secondary schooling.
Since 2018 we have invested a total of $639 million into the system, transforming careers through ongoing improvements and access to VET, and the results show it. In an alumni poll, over 90 per cent of graduates of Canterbury Girls’ said they graduated high school satisfied with the education they received. Just last week Victorians again topped the nation in this year’s NAPLAN results, with massive improvements at both primary and secondary levels as Victorian students continue to thrive at school. It is schools like Canterbury that help Victoria retain its first place in year 7 and year 9 writing. I am proud of our work, and I look forward to having the minister visit Canterbury and see how it is thriving under an Andrews Labor government.