My Vision for Tasmania writer Jane Bennett, founder of Ashgrove Cheese, said low literacy and numeracy levels in rural Tasmania could be addressed by an extra hour each day at school.

While the idea was welcomed by some members of the community, the response on The Examiner's Facebook was overwhelmingly against.

Australian Education Union president Terry Polglase said he agreed with Ms Bennett's desire to assist literacy and numeracy development but did not agree with the extra hours.

``For children in rural and isolated schools there would be transport issues, and issues about what time they got home,'' Mr Polglase said.

``I agree with the sentiment but there are many cases where rural schools outperform city schools. In fact some of them have topped the literacy results.''

Tasmanian Farmers and Graziers Association chief executive Jan Davis said Ms Bennett's idea could work with older children.

``For high school-aged children it would be a great idea,'' Ms Davis said.

She said social issues that used to be addressed in the family home had increasingly become the responsibility of schools, which decreased the available time spent on core subjects.

``Perhaps if we used that extra hour after school, not necessarily on traditional curriculum areas but things that are more and more becoming a part of what schools do, then we would have more time to spend on arithmetic and literacy,'' Ms Davis said.

A spokeswoman for Education Minister Nick McKim welcomed the discussion on how to improve numeracy and literacy outcomes for Tasmanian children in government schools.