Welcome back

Can’t wait: Minister for Education Martin Dixon, Deputy Premier Peter Ryan, TS Constructions’ Mark Patterson and Leongatha Secondary College assistant principal Greg Elt.

DEPUTY Premier Peter Ryan and Minister for Education Martin Dixon were welcomed back into schools last week, after the lifting of a long time Australian Education Union ban.

The lifting of the ban comes with promises from new Premier Dennis Napthine to finalise the new teachers pay deal.

Locally Mr Ryan and Mr Dixon visited the Leongatha Education Precinct, hearing the thoughts of leaders from the Leongatha Secondary College, Leongatha Primary School and GippsTAFE, and checking on the progress of building works at the site.

A similar visit was paid to Mirboo North’s education precinct.

Mr Dixon believed he had been at Leongatha Secondary College in the past but couldn’t say when. He was happy to be able to come back to schools, without raising the hackles of the union.

“While the bans were on many schools made exceptions and said, ‘No, it’s important for you to see what’s going on.’ It’s really important for me to see the schools and meet the people. It’s definitely good to be able to do that freely now,” he said.

“I’ve visited 10 schools in the past week.”

Asked if the mood amongst teachers had lifted since government had signalled it would finally close a pay deal, Mr Dixon said: “I’ve been made very welcome. Teachers can now get on and do the things they need to do.”

Did former Premier Ted Baillieu drag his feet on the pay issue?

“The end result is what matters. It’s got to go through a couple more processes. It certainly will be good to finalise it so we can concentrate on educating the kids, which is what I’m on about and what the teachers are on about,” Mr Dixon said.

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Posted by Simone Short on Apr 30 2013. Filed under Featured, News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry