The Underwood Centre for Educational Attainment will improve education outcomes in Tasmania.
This collaboration between the State Government and the University of Tasmania is a piece of the puzzle that's been missing from our broken education system for too long.
It is disappointing that the Australian Education Union president Terry Polglase has not supported this initiative, and has wrongly claimed that the centre would be funded using Gonski funding otherwise destined for classrooms.
This is not correct. The Government contribution is from money already allocated to the $4.2 million Developing Our Workforce strategy. While this is funded through the Better Schools program, it was never destined for school classrooms.
The Developing our Workforce strategy aims to improve the quality of our teachers, and who better to partner with to undertake this than the University through the Underwood Centre.
The centre will be funded by the University and philanthropic funds, and will oversee a number of strategic partnerships between the University of Tasmania and the State Government aimed at improving educational attainment in Tasmania. The Developing Our Workforce strategy program is the first of the Underwood Centre partnerships.
Tasmania has the worst retention rate of any state, with fewer than one in two young Tasmanians completing Year 12. I urge Mr Polglase to lift his eyes above partisan politics and support reforms aimed at keeping our kids in school, and lifting their outcomes.
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