NORTHERN parents are lashing out at the government's decision to axe pathway planners from state schools.
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The cut, which will save the government $3 million a year, will result in the loss of 52 jobs, with 42 full-time and 17 contractor jobs to go.
Education minister Jeremy Rockliff told parliament that the Guaranteeing Futures program, under which the pathway planners are employed, was not working.
"Guaranteeing Futures was cut to bits by the Labor Party in 2008-09. It was meant to work in grades 8, 9 and 10 ... grades 8 and 9 are gone," he said.
"Starting pathways planning in grade 10 is simply too late. We need to redesign the model and start it at kindergarten to grade 12, and that is what we are doing. This is the new approach."
Little information has been provided about what funding the replacement program My Education will have, only that online learning tools will be available to students and teachers.
Exeter Parents and Friends Association member Victoria Jarman, whose daughter Madeleine used the program before enrolling at Launceston College, said online apps could never replace the mentoring provided by pathway planners.
She said there was a lot of anger about the lack of consultation, and the fact that pathway planners only found out after the decision had been made.
"A lot of the kids who need pathway planners aren't going to respond to an app, and I don't think they will respond as well to teachers," Mrs Jarman said.
"There are so few resources in our schools, and then they take away our pathway planners who are so much more than just providing information on careers."