In 2018 the Hodgman majority Liberal Government has focused on delivering our Plan to address the issues Tasmanians care about most and we’ve delivered results.
We have prioritised lifting education achievement in Tasmania with a significant investment in teachers, support staff, schools, resources and infrastructure.
Planning has started for new schools at Sorell, Cosgrove, Legana and Brighton, more than $110 million has been invested in upgrades at nearly 20 primary and high schools state-wide and recruitment is currently underway to boost our school farms.
We have listened to concerns about workload and class sizes and committed a record $324 million into education, including 358 more staff and $192 million in education and training infrastructure.
And, most recently, we have offered to employ a further 95 new specialist teachers by the end of next year as part of a fair and affordable wages offer to address work load concerns.
Our Plan for Education is clearly working. TCE attainment and retention levels are improving and 38 schools have extended to Years 11-12 – well ahead of the planned 21 by 2018. Five schools have been confirmed for 2019 and four more schools in 2020 will offer senior secondary opportunities for students.
Our changes to the Education Act will also see free access to pre-school for vulnerable 3-year-olds and 5 pilot pre-schools have been announced for 2019 and we will be introducing a new needs-based funding model for students with disability.
Our achievements this year, build on what we have already delivered in our first term. There are now 142 more teachers, 193 more teacher assistants and 63 extra specialist support staff in our schools, like psychologists, social workers, speech pathologists and school nurses.
The Hodgman majority Liberal Government has fixed the budget and due to strong financial management we are able to continue to build your future with a better education system, more teachers, more support staff and contemporary schools and infrastructure.
Our targets for Education and Training include:
See all of our targets at: https://www.tas.liberal.org.au/sites/default/files/BuildingYourFuture.pdf
More Media Releases from Jeremy Rockliff
More Media Releases from the Minister for Education and Training