Committed to a bright future for all students
SINCE being elected in 2014, the Hodgman Government has taken up the challenge of raising education standards in Tasmania.
As a government, we have now set ambitious targets to meet the national average for retention of students to year 12, and to increase the achievement of the Tasmanian Certificate of Education to 75 per cent — we know Tasmanians want to see improvement such as these and that this requires change.
When we came to government, we accepted responsibility for an education system that had been failing our young people and have set about changing and improving it through extending schools to Year 12, replacing a 20-yearold Education Act, investing in school support staff, and helping raise the expectation of our young people to encourage students to stay in school longer.
It’s not good enough that some Tasmanian children can have up to two years less schooling than other states, which is no doubt part of the reason why our education results are not as good as they could be.
A renewed and strong commitment to increase participation in quality early learning can help to overcome this.
Indeed, research shows that access to quality early playbased learning can dramatically improve a child’s educational success — and that this is particularly the case for children who are vulnerable, or experience disadvantage.
That is why the Government has maintained our commitment to increase participation in early learning.
An implementation report into changing the voluntary school starting age has provided a deeper appreciation of the potential impacts of implementing an earlier school starting age in Tasmania.
Our new Working Together for Three Year Olds initiative will provide earlier access to play-based learning for Tasmanian children who are vulnerable or disadvantaged through the provision of an additional year of preschool.
This opportunity will be offered when children are three, in partnership with the Early Childhood Education and Care (ECEC) sector from 2020.
We have always said we will listen, and we have always said we will work with the early childhood sector on a successful transition.
I wholeheartedly thank those in the sector who have
The government makes no apologies for a focus on improvement, says Jeremy Rockliff
worked with us and who have provided their business information to enable us to understand the economic landscape of Tasmania’s vital early childhood education and care sector.
I won’t hide from any accusations of a backflip.
Instead, I recognise that as a government, we have undertaken research and analysis and we have listened, and changed our approach accordingly.
The ECEC sector has an
When we came to government, we accepted responsibility for an education system that had been failing our young people.
important role in enabling workforce participation by parents, as well as a role in providing quality early learning for many Tasmanian children, and employment for members of the Tasmanian community.
Developed in close partnership with the ECEC sector, our Working Together for Three Year Olds initiative will receive funding of $10.5 million each year.
Our commitment to making improvements to the early learning provided for children in Tasmanian schools will also be maintained.
This includes recurrent funding of $4.9 million for extra support in the Prep year, including teacher assistants in Prep classes as set aside for implementation of the earlier voluntary school starting age.
Further, we will keep our commitment that all government kindergartens will be assessed against the National Quality Standards for Early Childhood Education and Care from 2020 and associated infrastructure requirements will be funded. Our focus has been, and will remain on, building a bright future for Tasmanian children.