Supporting all students to help them realise their full potential

IT doesn’t really matter which metric you choose to measure success in life by — career, community, income, health or happiness. For any of these, evidence suggests that your level of education will be key to your success.

Supporting all students to learn is a key priority for the Hodgman Liberal Government. Our long-term plan is to lead the nation in education and we want to help all students experience success, to reach their full potential and lead happy and productive lives.

Education, and its power to break the cycle of disadvantage, is key to Tasmania’s future.

While educational outcomes in Tasmania have been steadily improving over the past three and a half years, with more students staying in school longer and achieving more, we also know there are many students in Tasmania who need extra support to learn and succeed.

That is why we allocated $17.8 million in the State Budget for a package of initiatives to help teachers and other professionals help improve students education and employment opportunities.

Health can have a big impact on students’ ability to learn. From mental health, to body image and healthy relationships, as well as the delivery of health initiatives, school nurses are already helping hundreds of students across the state.

We have had plenty of positive feedback of just how well the school nurses program has been received, from the Children’s Commissioner to the students themselves. We are continuing to invest in this successful program, allocating $4 million over four years in the 2017-2018 Budget to extend the School Health Nurses initiative to government district schools. Why Labor dropped this program is beyond me.

Of course, it is not only school nurses who are now in place to help students. The 2017-2018 Budget includes $6.9 million over four years for an additional 14.8 full-time equivalent professional support staff such as speech pathologists, psychologists and social workers, to work with students who might not otherwise reach their full potential at school.

We are also funding the extension of successful student re-engagement programs of $5 million over four years to help overcome any other barriers which stop students from staying in the school system. We are also investing $1.6 million over four years to establish a Child and Student Wellbeing Strategy, to support students whose health may be impacting their learning, and $250,000 to SPEAK UP! Stay ChatTy for youth suicide prevention and mental health awareness.

Supporting students means more children can achieve their education goals. This year we introduced a Middle Years Project to provide additional literacy and numeracy support for schools. This is in addition to our 2014

commitment of an additional 25 literacy and numeracy specialist teachers in schools, and builds on progress made last year in language and literacy outcomes for our younger students following stronger NAPLAN results.

Literacy and numeracy are foundation skills for life and learning.

Supporting students through middle school means they are better prepared to continue their schooling through to year 12, and with our high school extension program students can reach their education goals no matter where they live.

We are sending a clear message to the Tasmanian community that school doesn’t end in year 10. Giving students the opportunity to study year 12 closer to home means more students achieved their Tasmanian Certificate of Education.

In 2016, 3767 young Tasmanians (382 more students than in 2015), achieved their TCE with the achievement rate rising as a result of this to 56 per cent — a huge six percentage point increase on the previous year and 13 per cent higher than it was under the previous government in 2011.

Supporting all of these initiatives is our comprehensive overhaul of Tasmania’s education legislation with the start of Tasmania’s new Education Act — the first review of the Act in 20 years.

The Act introduces stronger practices for managing student attendance and behaviour and more flexible school enrolment options for home educated students and students with disability, further supporting students who might otherwise not be given access to the same opportunities as everyone else.

Education is, and will always be, a priority of this Government.

There is no doubt that Tasmania has changed for the better since the election, but there is more work to be done. By getting the budget back into balance we will continue to invest in giving every Tasmanian a better education and greater opportunity in life. Jeremy Rockliff is the Tasmanian Minister for Education and Training.