Following a successful parliamentary sitting last week with the passage of key
legislation to support job creation and keeping the community safe, this week the
Government will maintain our focus on delivering our long-term Plan with the
tabling of a new Education Act for Tasmania.
The new Act will set the legislative framework for Tasmanian Education into the
future and includes the Government's proposed changes to school starting age
and leaving requirements. These changes are vital to improving our education
outcomes, because currently, Tasmanian students can receive as much as two
years less education than their interstate counterparts - we simply can't
expect to do better, while we're doing less.
Changes include increasing of the leaving requirements to the completion of
year 12, or when a student turns 18, whichever comes first; and introducing a
new - voluntary - school starting age of four and a half, to allow access to
quality play based early learning for every Tasmanian child, sooner.
To deliver our reforms we will invest an additional $100 million in
the early years in the six years from 2018/19. This means more teachers,
teacher assistants and support staff in our schools, infrastructure upgrades
where required and most importantly, more education for our children.
Improving education results is a key priority of the Hodgman Liberal
Government, and the proposed changes will build on measures already introduced,
including the highly successful extension of high schools to Year 12.
Importantly, following extensive consultation, the new starting age is now
voluntary, which means that parents can choose whether to send their children
to Prep at four and a half. If they don't feel they are ready, they can wait
until the compulsory starting age of five, which won't change.
The Tasmanian Government has consulted widely on the proposed changes, which won't
commence until 2020 in order to allow an appropriate transition phase for
parents and the child-care sector.
Once the legislation clears the Lower House, a special session of the
Legislative Council has been scheduled for 25-26 October to consider it.
More Media Releases from Jeremy Rockliff
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