The Tasmanian Government’s policy of extending high schools to years 11 and 12 creates a different environment.

This article argues that the changed context creates exciting opportunities for the Colleges.  

To move forward, we need to review the unique Tasmanian background that led to the college system.

After the Second World War when states were faced with providing secondary education for all, Tasmania met the challenge by closing small schools, building large area schools and bussing students to them.

The development of high schools and matriculation colleges during the 1960s was an extension of the practice.

In mainland regions, distances were usually too great to bus students.

Instead of moving students to curriculum centres, the curriculum was moved to students.  

This was done progressively by mail, by radio (schools of the air), by T.V.  and then by modern interactive technologies. This allowed small secondary ‘tops’ to be added to country primary schools right through to year 12.  

So while other states moved the curriculum to the students, Tasmania moved students to curriculum centres, including the Senior Colleges.  

Despite the excellent work these Colleges have done for their students, there have always been some misgivings about the broader context.

It is the current government’s concern about retention rates, youth unemployment and the resilience of country communities that has led them to add 11 and 12 to high schools.  

The first understandable reaction to the policy might be to see it as a win for the schools and a loss for the colleges.

If the ‘student to the curriculum’ logic continues, it will be a loss for both.

This will happen if it is assumed that acceptable student choice can only be achieved when colleges or schools offer a wide smorgasbord of courses that have been resourced and staffed on site before students are enrolled.  

No other state could afford the retention of students into years 11 and 12 using this logic.

For them, the smorgasbord is in cyberspace.

More staffing is provided for those schools that put courses into the cyberspace than those who use it.  

Otherwise, there would be an impossibly expensive double dipping and high levels of stress in the high schools.  

What happens in Queensland is that certain ‘focus’ schools take on the role of developing on-line courses for the less demanded subjects.

Kenmore High School took on the role of providing courses in Maths C for schools with small enrolments in the subject.

Stanthorpe High School, in conjunction with The University of Southern Queensland, has facilities and staff that offer courses in wine tourism for twenty other schools in Queensland.

In this way, each school brings the curriculum to its students on demand.  

It’s a-la-carte rather than smorgasbord.

The role of the teacher is focussed on developing students as expert learners, whatever subjects they choose.  

If there is a teacher in the school with the relevant subject expertise, that expertise is utilised  – but not as a four hour per week allocation for one or two students.  

Schools like this require a ‘learning centre’, a facility or space where students can be studying a range of subjects with the support of interactive technology and teachers who are expert in facilitating good learning.  

Because even small secondary schools have basic laboratories, art studios, kitchens and workshops, they can provide the same opportunities as large schools.

This is where the developments in Tasmania have immense potential.

The colleges are ready made focal points.  Let’s take an example where physics involves, say, five students from Deloraine, four from Exeter, six from Scottsdale and one from King Island.  

One of the Launceston Colleges would get additional staffing to provide the physics course for these schools.  

Thus, with appropriate networked planning between Schools and Colleges, increases in high school retention will result in more teachers for the Colleges.  

Potential developments in the Colleges go well beyond their role as focal points for course development.

There are at least four other major areas that could make them iconic models in the provision of education for new generations of people.

All of these initiatives are cost negative; they save money or they make money.

• First, the relationship with the University of Tasmania needs to be explored. College campuses in Burnie, Launceston and Hobart are near adjacent to University campuses.

It makes sense to question why they are separately administered.  

A lead could be taken from what the NSW government and the Southern Cross University have done in Coffs Harbour.  

The Coffs Harbour Education Campus combines senior college and university offerings.

The facility allows TAFE, secondary and university educators to meet the needs of students, both local and international. It allows students to transition easily between education sectors.  

Such a partnership between senior secondary, T.A.F.E. and tertiary education offers greater opportunities to link with business and industry, just as occurs in Stanthorpe with the wine industry.  Providing integrated programs across four or five years would put Tasmania on the map in terms of innovative programs.  

Importantly, it would encourage retention to year 12 and beyond.

There are many community agencies that are set up to serve the needs of people in need of support, including educational support.  

Organisations such as Headspace, Lifeline, the Beacon Foundation and the YMCA are potential partners in program development.

• Second, on-campus College courses should be marketed widely to take advantage of Tasmania’s unique history and geography.  Any shortfall caused by the extension of the high schools creates space for the expansion of other student categories.

Because of Tasmania’s low retention rate over the past couple of decades, there is a desperate need for re-entry programs to serve those people who left school at year ten or who need to retrain.

A well-managed marketing campaign can encourage them back into mainstream education.

Negotiation with employers, the provision of child-care facilities and of part time and evening courses are important. 

 With planned pastoral support, Tasmania should be able to utilise its safe image and clean environment to attract a much larger share of overseas students.

This would be greatly enhanced if the University and the Colleges were to combine in the marketing and provision of courses.

• Third, online courses developed by the Colleges can do more than provide support for Tasmanian high school classes.

The new ‘Australian Curriculum’ means that many small schools across the nation and beyond will be seeking support in the development of programs and in the teaching of individual students in schools, on out-stations and rural properties.

Nowhere in Australia are there such focussed teams of professional teachers capable of developing online programs at the senior secondary level.

There is a market, not just in Australia, but overseas for this kind of provision.

• Finally, with government support, the e-learning and correspondence schools could well be subsumed into the college infra-structure so that learning ‘externally’ is not seen as a last resort but becomes an accepted central element in learning and teaching, and is provided by a well resourced and coordinated set of facilities. 

 We live in a world where people change jobs frequently, where new technologies continually demand the upgrading of skills and where much learning occurs by networking across distances.

Many Australians are choosing to enter academic life well after their ‘normal’ years of schooling.

I know of no organisations that are in a better position to meet these opportunities than the Tasmanian Senior Colleges.

The opportunities are great but we need bold and creative thinking and visionary leadership among teachers and their unions, administrators, politicians and University planners.

Mike Middleton was schooled at East Launceston and Trevallyn Primary Schools and was a teacher and secondary principal in Tasmania. He chaired Queensland's Ministerial Consultative Council on Curriculum during 1990s and lectured in educational administration at Griffith University in Brisbane.