The Hodgman Liberal Government has a goal to lead the nation in education and create a job-ready generation of young Tasmanians, to achieve this we need more students to stay at school longer and remain engaged in education.
A major component of our long term Plan for education is extending high schools through to year 12 and it is working, with a 57 per cent increases in enrolments at participating schools since 2014, and an improvement in our apparent retention rates now up to 74 per cent, up from a low 67 per cent under the previous Government.
Today I am pleased to announce the eight schools which will be extending to year 12 in 2018.
They are:
With a total of 38 schools extending to years 11 and 12 from 2018, we have exceeded our commitment to extend 21 regional high schools to Year 12 by 2018.
By extending high schools we ensure that students can choose to complete their senior secondary school education at their local school, recognising that there may be travel and finance barriers to students accessing college or other further education and training.
Under this Government’s initiative, we are sending a clear message to the Tasmanian community that school doesn’t end in Year 10 as well as providing students with more choice about where to complete their senior secondary education.
With consistently low educational outcomes, we simply cannot keep doing what’s been done in the past and expect different results.
By getting the budget back on track we can continue to invest in essential services, like education, including extending schools to years 11 and 12 and through the new Education Act ensuring Tasmanian students get the same opportunities as their interstate counterparts.
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