The Tasmanian Government welcomes the support from the Director of the Peter Underwood Centre for Educational Attainment Professor Elaine Stratford for the Government’s proposal to provide earlier access to Kindergarten and Prep.
Now, there are simply no excuses left for Labor to oppose this change, after all this support is exactly what Labor’s Education spokesperson Michelle O’Byrne asked for:
* “No evidence has been provided showing that simply lowering the school starting age will achieve better outcomes for students. The professionals Mr Rockliff and the Government should be engaging in their bid to “get people on board” are at the Underwood Centre.”
Well, now we have it. In a talking point published in the Mercury today, Professor Stratford said:
"We have the most to gain by changing how we provide high-quality early childhood education program. We have the capacity to rewrite these statistics over the next five years, and the five years after that, and the 10 years after that….In my view, these transitional years provide a once-in-a-generation opportunity for all parties to show Tasmania what it means to be learning organisation and work together…let’s grasp this moment.”
Ms O’Byrne must come good on her rhetoric of ‘taking the politics out of education’ and put the best interests of children above politics.
For the Labor Party to claim to represent social justice and equity but at the same time oppose a reform which will mean more teachers in our schools, more teacher aides and support staff and most importantly, will allow for the provision of two years of quality, play based, enquiry-led learning before formal school starts is the ultimate hypocrisy.
I remind the Labor Party again that Tasmania has the highest levels of disadvantaged children of preschool age in Australia. Fifty-six per cent of our children are in the highest levels of disadvantage compared to 36 per cent nationally.
The Hodgman Liberal Government’s education reform is clearly one of the single greatest opportunities we have as a state to break the cycle of disadvantage and to provide the best possible future for our children.
* The Examiner, August 8, 2016
More Media Releases from Jeremy Rockliff
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