A Hodgman Liberal Government will raise education standards by overhauling Tasmania Tomorrow and investing $30 million in revitalising our high schools, focussing on results, and providing more support to our students and teachers.

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.

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 21st Century and beyond.

What we will do:

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.

In addition, regional and rural high schools will take on an expanded role to years 12

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 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 middle and high schools in Tasmania.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Labor has failed Tasmanian students. For too long, our kids have been treated as guinea pigs in an educational experiment of the Labor Party.

Mr Bartlett has made it is clear that he will not making changes to his failed Tasmania Tomorrow experiment.

On March 20, Tasmanians will have a choice – four more years of experimentation with our children’s education, with worse results, or the real change and results focussed plan put forward by the Tasmanian Liberals.

For full details on this exciting policy, please visit www.tasliberal.com.au