Wise visiting profs worthy of high praise
Bill Handbury leads the applause for Michael Rowan and the late Eleanor Ramsay
MINISTER Jeremy Rockliff’s announcement all Tasmanian high schools will extend to Year 12 from first term 2022 (Mercury, February 23) is welcome news indeed.
Getting there has been a long and at times torturous road, but it’s worth recapping some history because there are some wonderful and inspiring achievements along the way, and, yes, the Mercury has played an invaluable role too.
Minister Rockliff said Labor opposed senior secondary education reforms as “unsustainable and unaffordable” but now says Labor supports its reforms. In fact the Liberals were in the same moribund boat of neglecting the needs of public education until two talented, public spirited professors from South Australia came to live in Tasmania.
The late Eleanor Ramsay and Michael Rowan are responsible for changing the way Tasmania considers and offers education in public schools today. These extraordinary educationalists upon arriving in Tasmania were horrified by the restricted opportunities children from non-privileged families were offered. They asserted that it was the system rather than children that was the problem.
Eleanor and Michael made a commitment to dedicate themselves to changing the draconian public system with its restrictive opportunities. And they did it with distinction. They researched, consulted and documented a networking path forward.
Mentoring by successful, confident students became a feature of their package. And then they set about selling a prescribed reform package.
An inspiring early initiative was to hold a forum at a UTAS Sandy Bay auditorium. The program was built on Eleanor and Michael’s invitation to lure Lynne Symons from Adelaide to share her experience and knowledge. Lynne is one of Australia’s most decorated primary and secondary education reformists. She took on a complete overhaul of the SA
Elizabeth district public education to the extent of insisting a new broom was needed and that reform must start from scratch.
Elizabeth, after the demise of the car industry, became one of the most impoverished, destitute areas in Australia. Governments were turning a blind eye to the entrenched schooling problems. The story of Lynne’s work is legendary and the turnaround is documented, particularly in the escalation of excellent exam results entailing many
more children both sitting and completing year 12. Today the results rival many students in privileged circumstances.
One heart lifting aside Lynne told the UTAS audience was in a bid to break through a “them and us” mentality she would take students to Adelaide university when it was on vacation, provide lessons on campus and tell the students the uni belongs to them and she expected to see them there after Year 12.
Lynne’s reform package aspired to have all teachers with at least a Masters qualification. It was ambitious, but fundamental for an honest reform process. We are not there yet in Tasmania.
From day one the Mercury embraced Eleanor and Michael’s reform pathway and readers will recall the many pieces they wrote for this Talking Point opinion section. Tasmania’s public education still has a way to go to bridge the gap. But, thanks to Michael Rowan and Eleanor Ramsay, we can all be encouraged.