Rockliff listens, cares little for ‘backflip’

EDUCATION Minister Jeremy Rockliff doesn’t care if he is accused of backflipping on a lower school starting age, because the State Government’s new preschool plan is the result of listening to people.

“I could be accused of giving the gold medallist from the 2016 Rio Olympics for gymnastics a run for their money in terms of backflips by a whole range of people,” Mr Rockliff said in a questionand-answer session with the Mercury on social media.

“But at the end of the day, call it what it is ... we’ve been listening and we will continue to listen.”

Mr Rockliff said strong opposition to the State Government’s plan to push the voluntary kindergarten age down to 3½ was unexpected, but said the new direction for school starting ages would be the best way forward for Tasmanian children and childcare providers.

“[It was] well-intentioned. I want to use education to break the cycle of disadvantage and we’ve come up with another way,” he said.

As part of the shift, funded by $10.5 million a year, an expected 2500 children who meet a set criteria will receive a voluntary free year of preschool, with a focus on play-based learning, by 2020.

Mr Rockliff said he was in no doubt that the new way forward would be “nationleading”.

The change in tack was driven by a $350,000 KMPG report into the social and economic impacts of implementing the voluntary earlier school starting age.

The report, released yesterday, found 63 per cent of the state’s early childhood education and care providers were already financially vulnerable. If the starting school age was implemented, the early education and care sector would lose $23 million a year and 279 jobs would be lost, it stated.

Tasmanian president of Early Childhood Australia Jo Walsh said the sector was breathing a sigh of relief and praised Mr Rockliff for reversing the decision.

“This is a win for all Tasmanian children and especially for those who are disadvantaged or vulnerable,” she said.

“We were really concerned that kindergarten [which] is in the school system was not the best place for children who are 3½, and childcare is very different ... so we were really concerned that they would be put in an environment that wasn’t suitable for them.”

Labor education spokeswoman Michelle O’Byrne said the whole process had been a “woefully misguided experiment”.

Tasmanian Greens leader Cassy O’Connor said the Government was finally doing the right thing.

Australian Education Union Tasmanian branch president Helen Richardson said the state’s schools would not have been able to cope with the change.