Mr GREG WARREN (Campbelltown) (12:17): My question is addressed to the Deputy Premier, and Minister for Education and Early Learning. Will the Deputy Premier update the House on what action the Minns Labor Government has been taking to fix the long-term challenges facing education in New South Wales and to ensure every child has access to a world-class public education?

Ms PRUE CAR (Londonderry—Deputy Premier, Minister for Education and Early Learning, and Minister for Western Sydney) (12:17): I thank my Parliamentary Secretary for that important question. Mr Speaker, I note your acknowledgement of the students from Lake Macquarie High School. I also welcome them and Mr Maher. I am proud to say that a Lake Macquarie High School polo shirt has pride of place in my office. I begin my answer to the question asked by the Parliamentary Secretary for Education and Early Learning by, of course, talking about this Government's belief that education is at the heart of successful societies and productive economies.

The member asked about what significant challenges we face when it comes to the education of our young people. There are many. Unfortunately, when we came to government, the challenges that we inherited from members opposite were real. The people of New South Wales made their voice very clear when they voted in a new government to address the root causes of the challenges that we faced in education. Let's remind members of what they were. We had a chronic teacher shortage. Teacher vacancies, resignations and retirements were at an all-time high. Merged and cancelled classes exceeded 10,000 every day. No government in history could seriously put their hand on their heart and say that that is anything but a significant challenge for the future prosperity of the State of New South Wales, because the education of our young people is an investment in the future. This Government faced those significant challenges head on by getting rid of the wages cap for New South Wales public school teachers once and for all and, after 12 years of suppression, giving them the biggest pay rise in a generation.

The SPEAKER: There is too much audible conversation in the Chamber.

Ms PRUE CAR: That, in addition to all the other measures we have been hard at work on, is beginning to show real results. We made 16,000 temporary teachers and support staff permanent. As a result, vacancies are at all-time lows, and resignations are at significant lows. There has been a 40 per cent drop in vacancies in the two‑year period since we came to government. That matters because it impacts on the outcomes for our young people in classrooms—both academic and wellbeing outcomes. We know that our young people face mental health challenges in schools and in society like they have never faced before. We are addressing those significant challenges head on, and getting to their root causes. [Extension of time]

In addition to improved outcomes for our children by keeping more teachers in the classroom, I am very pleased to report to the House that offers of university places for teaching degrees are up 36 per cent in New South Wales. That is a more significant rise in those offers than in any other State or Territory in the country. We are proud of the progress we are making, but there is more work to do. We need to roll out the new curriculum with a mandated use of explicit teaching. For the first time in NSW Department of Education history, the department has actually set the expectation for how our children are taught. It is insane that that never happened before. That explicit method of teaching—

Mr Jihad Dib: Direct instruction.

Ms PRUE CAR: Direct instruction—as the former Principal of Punchbowl Boys' High School points out—will, we hope, result in improved outcomes for our children. In a debate last week, the member for Davidson sheeted home explicit teaching to the former Minister in the other place, Sarah Mitchell, saying that she was perhaps the mother of that form of teaching. We can hold her responsible for a lot of things, but a teaching pedagogy that has existed since the 1960s is definitely not one of them.

The SPEAKER: I call the member for Bathurst to order for the first time.

Ms PRUE CAR: Relying on advice from that former Minister might be like the captain of a ship asking for advice from the captain of theTitanic.

The SPEAKER: I call the member for Bathurst to order for the second time.

Ms PRUE CAR: We inherited a system in decline. We are making progress, and we will continue to do that work for our children.