Lowering the school starting age won’t be back on the state government’s agenda despite a multi-million dollar investment in kindergartens.
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The plan to change the voluntary school starting age to three years and six months for kindergarten students was ditched in August last year.
But concerns from the early childhood sector were raised during budget estimates on Monday.
Independent Launceston MLC Rosemary Armitage spoke on behalf of the sector, questioning Education Minister Jeremy Rockliff about the $15 million plan to upgrade kindergartens across the state.
“Is it a coincidence the government is spending money on upgrading kindergartens … with apparently no plans to reduce the school starting age,” she asked.
“[The sector] is concerned the government may still be going along with the agenda of early entry, but in a different way.”
Mr Rockliff replied “no”.
“There’s no plans at all … we will not be revisiting the earlier starting age at all,” he said.
“We have found a different way, a new way, and that’s the targeted initiative for vulnerable three-year-olds.”
The recent external audit of TasTafe was also raised by the Legislative Council committee, with questions around the use of credit cards.
The committee was told credit card use training had been launched last week, with all senior staff to undergo that training.
TasTAFE chief executive Jenny Dodd said there were plans to reduce the number of credit cards from 200 to less than 100, with 30 already taken away.
Another area identified in the audit was conflict of interest, which Ms Dodd said was improving.
“In January, we had five conflicts of interest, we now have 115 declarations of conflicts of interest,” she said.
Mr Rockliff said feedback from staff revealed they were “very keen to move on from the negative publicity”.
“They want to see the organisation become the best it can,” he said.