What the Tasmanian Liberals will do:

Raise education standards by overhauling Tasmania tomorrow, revitalising our high schools, focussing on results, and providing more support to our students and teachers.

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Tasmanians have had enough of imposed top down experimentation with our children’s education.

Under a Hodgman Liberal Government, there will be no more experimentation with our childrens’ education.

We will overhaul Tasmania Tomorrow based on strong feedback from teachers, students, parents, industry, and the community that Labor has got it wrong.

Mr Bartlett’s education experiment has divided Tasmania’s community and forced students to choose too early in life (just 16 years old) whether they want to pursue an academic or technical career, at a time when international researchers were warning against early streaming.

A Hodgman Liberal Government will work with teachers, principals, students, parents and their communities to ensure that good teaching and learning practices are being used, that there are clear expectations and rigorous standards being used, that students are valued, engaged and achieving, that Tasmanian students are achieving at least to the national average, and that our schools are safe and free from bullying.

We will tackle retention, improving our qualifications outcomes and absenteeism by putting an increased focus on the critical middle schooling and high school years.

Tasmanians have had enough of noisy and glossy reform announcements such as Essential Learnings, and Tasmania Tomorrow, which have failed to deliver the educational outcomes that Tasmanian students need for the 21^st Century and beyond.

What we will do

1. We will overhaul Tasmania Tomorrow

Tasmania Tomorrow is a failed educational experiment. We do need to improve education outcomes in this state but David Bartlett’s policy has made things worse, not better, with retention rates continuing to fall and students forced to choose between academic and vocational futures too early.

It is a fact that Tasmania’s retention rates have gone backwards under Labor since 2004, and have fallen still further under the first year of Tasmania Tomorrow.

Under our plan, all Colleges which have transitioned to the Polytechnic and the Academy will be returned to their status as Colleges, and will offer both academic and vocational/technical training education from 2011 onwards.

The Tasmanian Liberals recognise that some parts of Tasmania Tomorrow have worked, in particular, the Skills Institute. For that reason, rather than returning to the old TAFE system, we will retain the Skills Institute and expand its operations to cater for adult vocational and technical skills training, second chance and adult education which has been the responsibility of the Polytechnic.

We believe this can be achieved without compromising the successful operation of the Skills Institute.

We will abolish the cumbersome joint services entity and devolve those functions to both the Regional High Schools, colleges and the Skills Institute.

Under our plan we will overhaul all that is wrong with Tasmania Tomorrow but keep the bits that have worked. Thus will ensure we provide our students with a high quality education at minimal disruption.

We expect to save around $1 million per year by overhauling Tasmania Tomorrow, abolishing Joint Services and reducing the number of administrative structures from three to one. This money will be reinvested in frontline services.

How our overhaul of Tasmania Tomorrow will work:

• At the conclusion of the 2010 school year all Colleges which have transitioned to the Tasmanian Polytechnic and Academy under Tasmania Tomorrow will return to their former status as Colleges, with strong College Associations drawn from the community, industry  and parents.
• Rural and regional high school educational responsibility will be extended to Year 12, including ensuring that the 16-18 year olds in their community are accessing, participating in and completing academic and vocational/technical training.
• The Tasmanian Skills Institute will be retained and expanded upon, to rapidly grow the opportunities for high quality, relevant, adult learning and training that caters for people who want to change careers, return to the workforce, gain skills that will lead to a promotion, and ensure that the Tasmanian workforce has a reputation for being highly skilled, innovative, and the best in the country.
• A number of interim measures will be required at the Polytechnic campuses which have already transitioned from Colleges, which will continue to operate through the 2010 transition year.  Each campus of the Polytechnic will have a Principal with clearly designated powers of decision making in relation to staff and students and a properly decentralised budget.  Professional development for all staff will be made available, especially to ensure that literacy and numeracy are embedded within the teaching of other courses.
• We need to support a strong culture of participation and achievement in education and training in all communities.

2. We will revitalise our high schools

The Tasmanian Liberals understand that a good High School education is a vital ingredient to post-year retention. That is why we will invest an additional $12 million ($4 million per year) to support the revitalising of our high schools in Tasmania.

Individual schools and their communities are in the best position to drive improvements to ensure their schools are achieving completion and qualifications outcomes, are safe schools, have reduced absenteeism, and have improved student outcomes to at least the national standard.

Reform in the area of middle schooling, high schools and Colleges will be supported by encouraging schools to operate in a cluster of either nearby regional schools, or schools with a common purpose.   This will enable the option of school communities to pursue alternative models such as a 5-8 Middle School, and a 9-12 High School option, share expertise, best practice, and maximise the impact of professional development.

Some of the initiatives that we will see under the additional funding provided by the Liberals include:

• Enhanced middle school processes;
• Literacy and numeracy for Years 5-8 and High schools will become a priority for any student who has not reached the relevant national standard;
• Access to individual learning programs and options 9-12;
• Supporting education in social skills and a strong emphasis on early intervention and differentiated support;
• More flexible and relevant student extension and study programs such as the Big Picture Model;
• Increased access to vocational education and training, and school based apprenticeships in Years 9 to 12;
• Centres of Excellence in our High schools, including partnerships with industry and philanthropic organisations in science, engineering, technology, and the arts;
• Expanded student participation in a range of non-traditional outreach learning and community/work experience opportunities and environmental service;
• Expanded intervention and support programs for students who at risk, demonstrating that they are falling behind, are disengaged, are non-attenders, disruptive to their own and others learning, or have learning difficulties;
• Outsourced educational provision partnerships with alternative providers including the Australian Technical College, The Skills Institute, non-government providers, alternative schooling provisions, mentoring programs, and industry placements;
• Schools may decide to remove their principals from their teaching quota to enable greater focus on educational leadership and best teacher learner systems and teaching.

3. We will expand Rural and Regional High School educational responsibility to Year 12

We will ensure that the 16-18 year old learners in their community are accessing, actually participating in, and completing academic and vocational training whether that is through the local Trades Training Centre, The Skills Institute, the High School, or an alternative training system.  Completing Year 12 or achieving nationally recognized certification including certificate III, or progressing through an apprenticeship or traineeship should become the expectation, rather than a goal for the few.

4. Expanded capital works program

We will establish a Renewing Our High Schools Capital Works Fund of $8 million over four years for the redevelopment of secondary school facilities throughout the State.

5. Pathway Planners

We will invest in and valuing pathway planning officers in our students career and vocational learning pathways by providing an additional $7.5 million to support up to 35 new Pathway Planners in our schools and colleges.

6. More professional development

We will invest in improving teacher quality and capacity to make a real difference to improving education outcomes for our children by providing $1.95 million ($650,000 each year over the next three years) to our schools for additional teacher professional development.

This will be guided by a comprehensive school improvement plan and will help fund relief staff so teachers can undertake in-school, collegial professional development without disrupting students’ education or disadvantaging parents.

Why this policy is needed:
Labor has failed Tasmanian students. For too long, our kids have been treated as guinea pigs in an educational experiment of the Labor Party. First there was the ELS debacle, and now with the Tasmania Tomorrow experiment, our students are being let down, parents and employers confused, and teachers alienated.

Mr Bartlett’s Tasmania Tomorrow post-year 10 reforms were meant to improve retention and absenteeism rates but in fact things have got worse.

Under Tasmania Tomorrow’s first year of operation, the Year 10 to Year 12 apparent retention rate has fallen from 63.7% in 2007-08, to 61.8% in 2008-09.

The percentage of 15 to 19 year olds who are not employed, not at school and not in full-time tertiary education has risen, from 9.6% in 2007-08 to 10.8% in 2008-09.

And the daily average absentee rate has increased from 8.31% in 2007-08 to 8.85% in 2008-09, with alarming figures showing that in 2008 13.74% of Year 9 and 16.21% of Year 10 students were absent.

And while the current Premier refuses to release figures relating to attendance in the Tasmanian Polytechnic in the Tasmania Tomorrow system (even refusing Freedom of Information requests), leaked data suggests that at some campuses active enrolments are down by 30 percent, and daily absenteeism similarly up by 30 percent.

Further, the latest national testing results show that under Labor, in the critical high school years, not only are our Year 7 and 9 students below the national average, Tasmania is trending downward.

The Liberals agree that more needs to be done to fix Tasmania’s post-year 10 education system, but Labor’s plan is clearly failing.

In fact, it has made things worse.

After more than 11 years of Labor...
Tasmanians have been let down by a Labor Government more interested in ‘revolution’ in education, rather than delivering a practical and workable system.

The rejection of Labor’s Tasmania Tomorrow changes initiatives by Claremont, Elizabeth, Launceston and Rosny Colleges is a clear vote of no confidence in the government – from the very people charged with educating our next generation.

Labor’s changes have affected educational outcomes, have concerned parents and have left teachers feeling disenfranchised from their own profession.

Tasmanians deserve educational excellence – this means a robust curriculum, support for all in the classroom, a rewarded and recognised workforce – and parents given a respected voice.

Costings

	2009/10 $'000s	2010/11 $'000s	2011/12 $'000s	2012/13 $'000s
Revitalising high schools	0	4,000	4,000	4,000
Renewing Our High Schools Capital Works Fund	0	4,000	4,000	0
Teacher and leadership professional development	0	650	650	650
Pathway Planners	0	2,500	2,500	2,500

The total cost of this policy $29.45 million. The nett cost is $22.45 million, which includes savings from overhauling Tasmania Tomorrow.