Opinion: ‘Leaking ceilings and failing cooling’, the state SA children learn in says everything about us
Jennie-Marie Gorman thinks “the gap” is widening for public school children and that’s why the Australian Education Union is calling for a commitment for all classrooms to be brought up to scratch.
South Australia has a clear problem. Too many students are learning in facilities that are outdated, unsafe, or simply unfit for contemporary education.
The solution is just as clear. We need a minimum infrastructure standard for every public preschool, school, and TAFE site. And the responsibility sits with the next government to commit to auditing every site against that standard in its upcoming term, then bringing all sites up to scratch in the term after.
If we want a fair and prosperous future, it has to start with the places where learning happens.
Walk into any public education site, and you’ll find a community in motion. Young children practising new words, teenagers testing ideas, and adult learners building skills for their next chapter. Public education isn’t just a network of buildings. It’s the work of possibility.
But the spaces where that possibility unfolds tell a story too.
You might like
Before I became President of the AEU, I was a primary school principal. Like so many leaders, I knew every corner of my site, including the parts I wished visitors wouldn’t look too closely at. Our carpets were decades old, threadbare, and so worn down that students would pick at the frayed edges.
We couldn’t afford to replace them across the whole school. So, we did it room by room. One year the worst space, then the next worst, then the next. It took years, and even then, there was always something else that needed urgent attention.
That slow, piecemeal approach is the reality for leaders across South Australia. They stretch budgets, delay repairs, and patch problems, hoping nothing unexpected forces them to choose between safety and learning.
It shouldn’t be like this. Not for our students, and not for the educators working so hard inside these spaces.
Stay informed, daily
That’s why we’ve launched Our students. Our future, and why we keep returning to one essential message.
A minimum standard. An audit in the next term of government. A plan to bring every site up to scratch.
This isn’t a request for a handful of upgrades or a scattering of grants. It’s a call for a statewide fix. A basic guarantee that every student, no matter their postcode or learning pathway, will study in a space that supports their wellbeing, safety, and potential.
Because across the state, the gaps are widening. I’ve seen preschools where buckets are permanent fixtures beneath leaking ceilings. Schools where heating and cooling systems fail so often that learning becomes secondary to managing the temperature. TAFE workshops that look nothing like the industries students are preparing to enter. These aren’t isolated issues. They’re symptoms of a system that has never defined what a safe, modern, and functional learning environment should actually be.
A minimum standard creates that benchmark. It says: this is the baseline every child can expect. This is what safety looks like. This is what accessibility looks like. This is what a learning environment fit for the future should contain.
We’ll keep repeating the message because it matters.
Some will ask about cost. But the greater cost lies in doing nothing. The students training for tomorrow’s industries won’t get the skills they need in outdated TAFE facilities. The innovators and leaders we hope to nurture can’t thrive in classrooms that undermine their wellbeing.
Public education has always been a collective project. It succeeds when communities stand together, and it thrives when governments match their words with action. We need that action now.
The future of this state is unfolding in classrooms, workshops, and preschools across South Australia. Those spaces should honour students’ potential, not limit it.
A minimum standard. An audit in the next term. A commitment to bring every site up to scratch. That’s the responsibility our leaders must take seriously. Our students deserve nothing less.
Jennie-Marie Gorman is the state’s Australian Education Union president.
