Hypothesis Testing in Multiple Regression Analysis

A researcher is analyzing the impact of education level, years of work experience, and age on the annual salary of employees in a large firm. They collect data from 500 employees and apply a multiple linear regression model, which results in the following estimated regression equation:

$$Salary = 30,000 + 2,500 imes Education + 1,800 imes Experience + 100 imes Age$$

In order to test if the independent variable 'Education' significantly contributes to the model, the researcher conducts the following hypothesis tests:

$$ H_0: eta_{Education} = 0 $$

$$ H_a: eta_{Education} eq 0 $$

The significance level is set at $eta = 0.05$. The output from the regression analysis indicates that the t-statistic for the coefficient of 'Education' is 2.45 and the critical t-value for a two-tailed test with 497 degrees of freedom is approximately 1.96.

Based on this information, which of the following statements is correct regarding the significance of the 'Education' variable in this regression model?