LAUNCESTON College staff will tonight vote to decide whether they will join a stopwork meeting to discuss concerns about the Tasmania Tomorrow education reforms.
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Union leaders have warned of future industrial action but Australian Education Union state president Leanne Wright would not be drawn on that possibility yesterday.
Rosny College staff last week voted to join the meeting, and Don, Hellyer and Claremont colleges will vote this week.
It is the first step in what could lead to industrial action as teacher unrest over the polytechnic and academy systems grows.
Ms Wright said she expected Launceston College to join the stopwork meetings, which would be where teachers would discuss possible further action if their concerns were not addressed.
She would not be drawn on what that action might be.
"It comes down to what the members want," she said.
"Most of our members are pretty angry."
But AEU secondary colleges sector president Greg Brown said college staff were prepared to play hardball after what they saw as months of not being listened to.
"I think industrial action is unstoppable," he said.
Mr Brown said the teachers would avoid disruption to the students to quarantine them during an important time in their school year.
The stopwork meetings come after months of reported problems with the polytechnic and academy systems.
Teachers have raised concerns over a range of issues including student attendance, leadership structure and incompatible timetables between the two systems.
Bass Liberal MHA Sue Napier said yesterday she had been in contact with a number of teachers who were concerned about the numbers of students dropping out.
She said one college campus on Friday had 153 students out of 700 absent at 11.45am, with many classes still to go.
"Three academy teachers have told me they have kids still on their enrolment lists who they have `never seen in my life'," she said.
Mrs Napier also quoted a teacher who said the polytechnic students were "dropping out like flies".
Premier and Education Minister David Bartlett said the preliminary census data showed an improved retention of students from Easter to August in comparison with previous years.
"I'm also advised that retention of students in the polytechnic shows strong improvement," he said.
"IT problems have been acknowledged and are being addressed.
" Enrolment data will be made available as soon as the audit process is completed."
