1 February 2019

Jeremy Rockliff, Minister for Education and Training

Record investment in Education achieving results

The Hodgman Liberal Government is making record investments in education and the latest Report on Government Services shows we are making good progress.

That is why the Government is continuing to prioritise lifting education achievement in Tasmania with a $324 million investment in more teachers, support staff, schools, resources and infrastructure.

The latest RoGS shows that we are seeing continual improvement in our retention and attainment rates which is due in part to our successful Years 11/12 High School Extension Program.

The 2017 Year 12 attainment rate was 61 per cent, an improvement of nearly 10 per cent since 2015 and the apparent retention rate for full-time secondary students has increased to 71.5 per cent.

The RoGS also shows:

• In the Early Years, Tasmania continues to have highly qualified staff and ratings for childcare services exceeding national values.
• Tasmania has the second highest rate (81 per cent) of paid contact staff holding a Certificate III or higher and the third highest rating for National Quality Framework (NQF) approved services of 94.8 per cent achieving a quality rating.
• Tasmania also had a lower proportion of children vulnerable on one or more domains in the 2015 Australian Early Development Census, an improvement of 0.5 percentage points since 2012.
• For all government school students in Years 1-6 in 2018, the attendance level in Tasmania (78.2 per cent) was higher than the Australian value (77.5 per cent).

The Hodgman Liberal Government’s plan for education is working and these RoGS results reflect that.  In particular, we now have more students staying in school longer and achieving better results.

Our targets for Education and Training include:

• Invest a record $324 million over 6 years into Education including 250 more teachers and 358 new staff in total.
• Invest $192 million in Education infrastructure.
• By 2020 be at or above the national standard in every single NAPLAN measurement in reading, writing, maths and science.
• Ensure the retention rate of students from years 10-12 is at or above the national average by 2022.
• 75 per cent of all students to complete their TCE by 2022.

More Media Releases from Jeremy Rockliff

More Media Releases from the Minister for Education and Training