Jacquie Petrusma

Jacquie Petrusma MP - Member for Franklin
TASMANIA'S EDUCATION PERFORMANCE
Matter of Public Importance
May 25th, 2011

Mr Deputy Speaker, I think it is quite ironic that this Government spent the past year singing the praises of the synergies and benefits of having one minister in charge of education, children and police. Now we have those portfolios split three ways with the Minister for Children now coupled with Health and the Minister for Education coupled with Sustainable Transport and responsibility for alternative energy.

As shadow minister for children, I believe that there is no more important issue for children than a good education. But for children under the guardianship of the State, under State care, this is not a reality. The 'Be heard' report by the Create Foundation, which surveyed 96 children in State care over a two-year period, found that only 3 per cent of those children had an individual education plan and 53.1 per cent did not feel that they had anyone in their lives who could help with their homework.

As well, other recent reports this year have told us that educational outcomes for children in State care are not being met. A report by the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare shows that Tasmanian children in State care were falling way behind at school. The report, Educational Outcomes of Children on Guardianship or Custody Orders, revealed that only 32 per cent of Tasmanian children in State care in Grade 7 were meeting numeracy benchmarks and only 48 per cent in Grade 3 were meeting numeracy benchmarks. For these children to be falling way behind at school because they have been removed from their families is simply scandalous. This Government is allowing these children to fall between the cracks, failing some of the most vulnerable children in this State.

The Minister for Children must understand that families play an important role in providing for their children's education and ensuring that they achieve their best at school. Children removed from their family are usually traumatised and must receive extra attention to ensure that they continue to learn and grow, despite lacking the traditional family safety net.

Mr Deputy Speaker, the Government's response to the Create report was to commit to ensuring Tasmanian children in State care had an individual educational plan. Ironically, this was also a recommendation of the Commissioner for Children, two children's commissioners ago, in 2006. Again, we have poor educational results and this Government is not acting on recommendations for children in State care.

Already this Government has broken an amazing array of election promises in relation to education, from its $18 million special sports school at Cosgrove to IT initiatives, such as connected classrooms, to guaranteeing that there will be no forced redundancies and loss of frontline public servants such as teachers. Already we have seen the Government backflip on its election promise to tackle school bullying by employing an extra 12 school psychologists. We have seen a redundancy program put in place for teachers that the previous minister admitted was not about renewal, but about - and I quote - 'managing the size of our workforce.' We have seen a budget black hole emerge for the Polytechnic of $8.5 million and it may be that 70 Polytechnic jobs are now on the chopping block. We have seen teachers' aides betrayed by Labor and the Greens by the Government refusing to honour a commitment to decrease the amount of stand-down time for aides, where they are effectively stood down for eight weeks of the year, putting further pressure on them and their families.

We have seen Mr O'Halloran and previous Minister Thorp wanting to force all Polytechnic teachers to get a university degree, which would force many trade teachers with real life experience out of the system. We have seen the Government build a new southern support school but proper planning was not done beforehand. Construction for this new school was poorly managed and the school is already full, plus it is already too small for future enrolments. We have seen 140 teachers with science qualifications not teaching the subject and, on the other hand, 60 teachers who do teach science, having no formal qualifications at all to teach the subject with a needle stick debacle as a result. How will all this impact on their educational performance, Mr Deputy Speaker?

This Government's policy is on the run. From a sports school at Cosgrove to Tasmania Tomorrow, to Essential Learnings, to a $20 000 retirement plan for teachers; this is all clearly impacting on educational performance. The new Education minister has, in the past, stated that Tasmanian students had been Labor's guinea pigs and he is right. And while the minister has promised to stop experimenting with Tasmania's school students - and I do welcome that - I would also urge him to pay particular attention to vulnerable Tasmanian students who are currently getting lost in the system and, through no fault of their own, contributing to Tasmania's overall poor educational performance.

The minister knows full well that there are few cuts that can be made to education in this State. It is about teachers and teachers' aides, all of which will have a significant impact on the performance of students in our schools including teacher-to-student ratios. On the other hand, he has the option of closing schools. The minister has refused to rule out school closures and that is where this Government denied a Liberal RTI request for information on proposed school closures on the basis that this relevant information was under consideration by Cabinet. We understand that cuts to education will be in the order of $60 million. Perhaps the minister might tell Tasmanians today - parents, teachers and students - how he hopes to improve educational performance in this State while slashing the education budget.

The Greens are even still claiming currency of their many promises at their last election which topped $200 million and included delivering on a wage nexus for teachers, spending $9 million on giving students an apple a day, including buying refrigerated trucks, employing 50 pathway planners and 12 new school psychologists.