Kelly Vincent – 5RPH Interview on the Education Select Committee & SACE Certificate Changes
02/09/2015
On 2nd September 2015, Dignity for Disability MLC Kelly Vincent was interviewed on radio station 5RPH to discuss the Select Committee on Disability and Access to Education as well as the changes to the discriminatory wording on SACE certificates. Here is the audio and transcript from the interview.
Pam Green: Time now to welcome to 5RPH, Dignity for Disability MLC Kelly Vincent. Hi Kelly.
Kelly Vincent: Hi Pam.
Pam Green: Well from our previous discussions we know that you have set up a Select Committee of the South Australian Parliament to investigate and report on the experience of students with a disability in the education system. Does this include all types of education or just school? Are you looking into just the state or government schools or are you also taking evidence about Catholic and independent schools?
Kelly Vincent: At this stage we are just looking at education in schools specifically because that’s the area the state government has primary responsibility for and so the area that makes the most sense for a state parliament to look at. I certainly think that there’s unfortunately enough to sort out in the school education alone to keep this committee busy without going into the tertiary system at this stage. So we are just looking at school education specifically at this point. And yes we will be including looking into the independent and Catholic system as well as government schools.
Pam Green: So I understand there is a deadline for the submissions coming up in September. When is that? And how can people contact the relevant person about this?
Kelly Vincent: Ok, so the submissions close on Friday September 25. And people can request to give evidence orally instead of a written submission if they prefer. And they can also asked for their name to be redacted in their submission for their confidentiality to be protected as well. So there are measures to protect confidentiality if people are worried about that and if they think it would be a barrier to them speaking out. And the relevant person to contact is the secretary to the committee. That’s Ms Leslie Guy, and Leslie can be contacted on 8237 9490 or via email [email protected]. And there’s also a postal address for her and all this information can be found on my website.
Pam Green: And could you just go through the terms of reference for the committee just to refresh our listeners on what they might think they want to include in possibly their written or oral submissions to the committee.
Kelly Vincent: Sure, the terms of references are:
The first point being the experience of students with disabilities additional learning needs and or challenging behaviours and their families and advocates in the South Australian education system including early childhood centres, junior primary, primary and high school;
The experience of discrimination including victimisation and harassment of students with disabilities including but not limited to educational institutions failing to provide students with the support needed to reach their full academic potential on an equal basis with students without disabilities;
The experience of segregation; restraint; lack of social opportunities and inadequate supports for personal care requirements;
The current level of initial and in service training for teachers and other staff regarding students with disabilities and suggestions for broadening and improving such training;
The appropriateness or otherwise of school based policies and funding mechanisms for behaviour management or behaviour support for students with disabilities;
And any other related matter.
So while we have, as you can see kept the terms of reference pretty broad, we’ve done that deliberately to try and get as many voices in there as possible. There is the clause relating to any other matter so if a person feels their particular issue isn’t covered by the terms of reference, they still have some scope to raise it with the committee if they think it would be helpful.
Pam Green: And finally today, I know that you and some of your constituents had a big win last week in relation to the discriminatory wording on SACE certificates. Can you tell us what happened and what triggered the change?
Kelly Vincent: Sure, so for a few years now Dignity for Disability have been contacted by families of students with intellectual disabilities who have noticed when their children are graduating and receiving their SACE certificates when completing high school that their certificate had printed on it in bold letters ‘this student has completed a modified curriculum due to intellectual disability’.
Pam Green: Mmhm
Kelly Vincent: And not only was this worrying from a social perspective in terms of a young person; I mean can you imagine being a young person and being handed an official document that basically says in a big bold typeface, you’re different. And maybe suggesting that you haven’t worked as hard as everyone else. But we were also concerned and these families were also concerned that this would have more practical implications as well particularly for young, recent school leavers who might include their job certificate in a job application and of course having that in big bold font on their SACE certificate would essentially force a recent school leaver to disclose their disability to a prospective employer. And while of course it is illegal to discriminate on the grounds of disability in the work place, unfortunately we all know that there are very significant attitudinal barriers that exist for people with disabilities in getting and keeping meaningful work for a living wage. And so we we’re concerned that having this forced disclosure through this inclusion on SACE certificates would have real world effects in terms of potentially limiting employment opportunities. So we’ve been advocating with the SACE Board for a number of years now, trying to get this wording removed. We’re very pleased to report for future certificates for students who complete a modified curriculum due to intellectual disability or other factors this wording will no longer be included and that includes for students who will graduate this year as well.
Pam Green: Great, as always thanks for your time today Kelly.
Kelly Vincent: Thanks Pam.
Pam Green: Dignity for Disability MLC, Kelly Vincent.
