Rallies were held around the state on Wednesday, with Northern Tasmanian schools closing due to the industrial action organised by public service unions.

Teachers have asked for a more manageable workload, increased wages, attraction and retention measures for isolated areas, extended allowances, gender quality, stronger workplace democracy and for existing conditions to be maintained, Ms Richardson said.

“There are a lot of kids with different learning styles and individual learning plans that all have to be taken into account when preparing lessons,” she said.

One way to address workload would be to reduce class sizes to 20 pupils up to grade 2 and 25 for grades above, Ms Richardson said.

“There has been nothing put in the counter claim that will even look to address workload issues,” Ms Richardson said.

While Tasmania’s early career teachers are paid more than some mainland counterparts, the state’s experienced educators are not on par.

“In our last agreement we pressed hard for a decent pay rise for people entering the profession, but our most experienced teachers are the lowest paid,” Ms Richardson said.

“With a 2 per cent rise they will stay the lowest paid. We want a fair wage because we need to be treated equal to the mainland – 3 per cent will bring us into parity.”

TASSO president Nigel Jones said the organisation did not object to teachers putting in claims for higher wages, but asked that agreement was reached without more industrial action.

“We would prefer no more industrial action that would disrupt children’s learning this year, or even next year,” Mr Jones said.

Education and Training Minister Jeremy Rockliff said the government was employing 250 extra teachers “to help address teacher workload and deliver a high quality education for Tasmanian students”.

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