Brian Wightman’s claim that the Liberals’ visionary 7-12 high school policy would require major expansions of our high schools has been exposed as a deliberate deception, following the release of Education Department figures about high school utilisation and capacity on the North West Coast.
These figures, revealed in today’s Advocate, confirm what the Liberals’ already know - that the majority of Tasmanian high schools in the North West have the space right now to accommodate year 11 and 12 students. They also provide a valuable snapshot into the under utilisation of Tasmanian high schools state-wide.
Mr Wightman’s scare tactic that colleges will close under the Liberals is another deceit. As we have consistently stated, no college will close, but their function may change; we believe colleges are needed to maintain maximum choice and career pathways for Tasmanian students.
The Liberals’ visionary policy to extend high schools to year 12 within a decade of taking office would not only address Tasmania’s embarrassingly low year 12 completion rate, it would also see many high schools attracting the student numbers for which they were originally built.
On the one hand the Government is running around saying our schools are only 60 per cent full to justify their policy of forced closures; now they’re trying to claim that they’re all overflowing!
The Government is obviously running scared that the Liberals’ are proposing a policy to address education issues that Labor has consistently failed to address for over a decade.
The Liberals’ visionary high schools to year 12 policy is a common sense and long term approach to tackling our low year 12 completion rate, and would also bring Tasmania in line with every other state in Australia.
It is no coincidence that we are the only state in the country where high school ends at year 10, and we have the lowest year 12 completion rates.
We make no apologies about wanting to improve the education standards of our students – unlike Labor and the Greens, whose only school reform is looking at which ones to shut.
