The Tasmanian Government is absolutely committed to improving educational outcomes by making structural change, targeted investment and prioritising students with greatest need.
Today I am pleased to release draft Legislation to improve the Education Act.
The Education Act has served Tasmania well for 20 years, but it is no longer contemporary and doesn’t reflect community expectations. The draft Legislation is a result of our 18 month review and extensive community consultation around the state.
Last week, the Government announced the first proposed changes to the Act; lowering the compulsory minimum starting age (for prep) by six months, to four years and six months, and increasing the leaving requirements to completion of Year 12, a Certificate III, or reaching 18-years of age.
As it stands Tasmanian students can leave school with as much as two years less education than students interstate. And, almost half of our children miss out on high quality learning at a young age because not every family can afford child care or private education. We want every Tasmanian to have equal access to a quality education for longer.
The same curriculum operates in the early years of school (kinder) as in private child care centres. This is play-based learning, and that will not change with a lowering of the minimum starting age. Tasmania has the oldest minimum starting age in Australia.
The remaining proposed changes will ensure the Act is contemporary, flexible and sets the standards and expectations for a high performing education system in Tasmania, now and into the future. These include:
· Lifting the exemption from the education and training requirements for employment from 25 hours a week to 35 hours a week (full-time);
· A new compulsory conciliation conferencing process with families to address non-attendance;
· Allowing for the collection of information to develop risk management plans to better support students whose behaviour may lead to a risk of harm to themselves and others;
· The ability to set a minimum standard for adult behaviour in schools;
· Providing for dual enrolment of students with disability between a mainstream and special school across government and non-government sectors;
· For government schools, updated legislative provisions so that disciplinary actions sit within a broader student behaviour management approach;
· For non-government schools, increased options in the registration process - for the Non-Government Schools Registration Board in assessing applications, and for schools with the capacity to register as system of schools;
· For home education, a stronger regulatory approach including standards for registration as a home educator and annual reviews of student achievement, and the ability to apply for partial enrolment in a school; and
· One piece of legislation, replacing the Education Act 1994, the Youth Participation in Education and Training (Guaranteeing Futures) Act 2005 and the Education and Training (Tasmanian Academy) Act 2008.
These proposed changes are the result of careful consideration of feedback from the community and stakeholders, national and international research, and legislative and policy frameworks of other Australian jurisdictions.
Information sessions will be held across the state; details are available here: Reviewing Tasmania's Education Act. The draft Bill is also available there online.
I encourage the Tasmanian community to again engage in this process, just as they did during the initial consultation phase of this important process. Following the consultation process, we aim to introduce enabling legislation in the spring session of Parliament.
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