The impact of the state government’s election policy of extending grade 12 to all state schools needs to be discussed further, experts warn.
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Former Tasmanian education union president Terry Polglase and former principal Ivan Webb have both expressed concern that the debate around the role of colleges and the impacts of the grade 12 extension has not been rigorous enough.
Education Minister Jeremy Rockliff, however, said the program was working well in conjunction with colleges and dismissed their concerns.
Mr Polglase said enrolment numbers in state schools that had already extended to grade 12 were still very low, and showed the extension program was “helping some schools” but not others.
“It’s now about how $30 million of the education department’s budget can be best spent, and returning the teachers taken from high schools in 2015 should have been listed as the Liberal’s highest priority, as concerns over grade 7 to 10 education need to be addressed before loading schools up with even more expectation,” he said.
Mr Rockliff said the state government had employed more teachers and specialists. “We are seeing improved education results including more students completing year 12 than ever before,” he said.
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Former Riverside Primary principal Ivan Webb said the state government had “done well” with the extension program benefiting rural and regional schools.
“It is not clear that extending urban and suburban schools will be similarly productive,” he said.
“Can local high schools with much smaller cohorts properly provide the staff, facilities, courses and life-changing culture that colleges currently offer?”
Mr Polglase further warned the roll-out would risk colleges closing or being transitioned into grade 7-12 campuses.
Economist Saul Eslake welcomed the potential closure of colleges as a necessary progression toward leveling Tasmania’s education outcomes with the rest of the nation, but Mr Polglase and Mr Webb both disagreed.
“Public schools will not be able to replicate what colleges currently offer, and few, if any, non-government school students will choose to move to the local public high school after grade 10,” Mr Polglase said.
