What does Labor have against keeping young Tasmanians in school longer and investing in schools that need it most?
The fact is, we are actually speeding up the rollout of our 7-12 policy, due to the positive feedback from schools and local communities.
We are unashamedly giving more schools the opportunity to extend to year 12, earlier. And as we clearly said in our policy document prior to the election, no one size fits all and we’ll employ a range of models to achieve the best outcomes.
Labor’s record speaks for itself. After 16 years of Labor Government Tasmania has the worst literacy and numeracy rates in the country.
They should be ashamed by this report card but instead they continue to oppose any attempt to lift Tasmania off the bottom of the ladder.
In stark contrast, the Liberal Government is taking decisive action to improve educational outcomes.
We are committed to extending all high schools to Year 11 and 12, and already we have seen encouraging results with a 38 per cent increase in enrolments at the first schools to extend.
We have committed to funding the full six years of Gonski, a $134 million investment that includes $77 million this year, which is increasingly being targeted to those with greatest need.
We are investing an additional $17.75 million in the early years with the new LIFT program, which will be rolled out to 80 primary schools next year on the basis of need.
Career education has been extended, there are 25 additional dedicated literacy and numeracy specialists in our schools and we are investing more to assist students with a disability.
Meanwhile, Labor is a policy vacuum and continues to criticise when they had the opportunity for 16 years to turn the fortunes of Tasmanian students around and didn’t.
This Government cares about education and lifting educational outcomes. Labor should take a lesson from us and support Tasmanian students.
More Media Releases from Jeremy Rockliff
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