Elizabeth College: State government considering report that could recommend school merger

Teachers at an inner-city Hobart school are worried about the future of their workplace as the state government considers a report that could recommend drastic changes.

Education Minister Roger Jaensch. Picture: RICHARD JUPE

There is a “huge degree of anxiety” among the teaching workforce at Elizabeth College (EC) as concerns about its future continue to mount, a former teacher at the inner-city secondary school says.

Education, Children and Youth Minister Roger Jaensch is currently considering a report by consulting firm 3P advisory, which has examined options for the future of EC and Hobart City High School (HCHS).

EC, founded as Elizabeth Street School in 1911, has a “Partner Schools partnership” with HCHS, which was established in 2022 and resulted from a merger of New Town and Ogilvie high schools.

The Tasmanian government last year commissioned consulting firm 3P Advisory to conduct a review of HCHS’s operating model, with two options under consideration for the future.

Elizabeth College, Hobart.

The first is maintaining the status quo and the second is merging HCHS and EC, which would see them operate as one school across three campuses.

The report is expected to be released publicly once Mr Jaensch has fully considered its findings and the recommendations made by the steering committee.

Laura Russell, the deputy president of the Australian Education Union Tasmania’s Secondary Colleges Committee of Management, said a merger of the schools would be “a really major change” that threatened to be “hugely destabilising” for both staff and students.

“There’s a huge degree of anxiety at the college, partly because of the sense that it’s been a really precipitous consultation process – incredibly fast, not a lot of information provided to us,” she said.

Education Minister Roger Jaensch. Picture: Nikki Davis-Jones

“At EC, we’re being hit with change after change after change that has just been massively disruptive, in the context, as well, of huge teacher shortages and massive workflow problems.”

Ms Russell, who worked as teacher at EC from 2014 until late 2023, said the government’s flagship education policy of extending all high schools to years 11 and 12 resulted in a “really problematic allocation of resources” in urban schools.

“Colleges provide a really important halfway point between the structure of the school system and moving out into the world for students as young adults,” she said.

“And we are really worried that the loss of access to that represents a significant reduction in the quality of [education] Tasmanian students receive.”

Hobart City High School – Ogilvie Campus. Picture: Chris Kidd

Mr Jaensch said the consultation process had seen “a high level of engagement from the school and wider community”.

“It was a positive and productive process which identified a diverse range of views and opinions on what the future model could be,” he said.

“While no decisions have been made, any future changes will be made in close consultation with both the [HCHS] and [EC] communities and other stakeholders.”

Originally published as Elizabeth College: State government considering report that could recommend school merger