Today, I tabled the Department of Education (DoE) and Office of Tasmanian Assessment, Standards and Certification (TASC) Annual Reports for 2015–16.
These reports highlight the progress of major Government initiatives and projects, and prove our commitment to making the structural change and targeted investment necessary to give every Tasmanian a better education and greater opportunities in life.
We are well on the way to meeting our goals of leading the nation in education and creating a job-ready generation, with our $45.5 million Years 11 and 12 extension schools program progressing well. With a further six schools offering Years 11 and 12 in 2016, bringing the total to 12, and another 18 schools planning for extension from 2017.
We are seeing improvements with more students staying at school longer and achieving more while they are there. This is evident through the impressive rise in the apparent retention rate in Years 10 to 12 from 70.1% in 2014 to 73.8% in 2015.
Additionally, key data from the TASC report shows an increase in qualification attainment with 50.4 per cent of students attaining a TCE in Year 12 in 2015, up from 48.8 per cent in 2014, and 47.8 per cent in 2013.
We also now have more teachers, with a rise of 113.17 full time equivalent (FTE) from 4,372.35 FTE teachers employed in 2015–16 compared to 4,259.18 FTE in 2014 -2015. This is excellent news for our teaching workforce, our schools and, most importantly, for our students.
The Hodgman Government is committed to improving education at every age to lift educational achievement in Tasmania and increase the levels of engagement, retention and attainment for students.
Our $17 million Learning in Families Together (LIFT) literacy and numeracy initiative currently supports 80 schools with the highest need, providing greater opportunity for parents and carers to be involved in their children’s early learning which supports positive, productive and supported learning experiences.
The 2016 NAPLAN results prove we are making progress in language and literacy for our younger students, while also strengthened the growing 26TEN network with a 10 year plan launched in October 2015 to improve literacy and numeracy levels of adult Tasmanians.
This Government has committed funding of $5.8 million to the School Health Nurse Program to support schools, families and communities to help foster healthy choices, with a total of 20 FTE nurses in 2017 announced today doubling the original 10 FTE nurse numbers who started work in Term 3, 2015.
The 2015–16 Budget commits a further $95 million to the Education and Training Capital Investment Program over four years, including an additional $56.3 million over four years to fund a range of significant new infrastructure projects in schools across the state and the Burnie LINC. This represents the largest state investment in Tasmania’s high schools in 20 years.
TASC’s Annual Report 2015–16 reflects the progress made by the new entity in its first full year of operation, including in its core operational activities of senior secondary course accreditation, quality assurance, assessment and certification.
The Hodgman Government commitment to openness and transparency of data continues with all performance information reported in last year’s Annual Report now published through the ABS website on data.gov.au.
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