Education Minister says improved funding is lifting results

UPDATED: Tasmania’s education system is better funded than ever before and results are improving, the Education Minister says.

RECORD spending in the Tasmanian education system was paying dividends in improving attendance, retention and attainment rates, Education Minister Jeremy Rockliff says.

Jeremy Rockliff. Picture: ZAK SIMMONDS

The latest Report on Government Services from the Productivity Commission shows that the Tasmanian education system continues to lag its interstate peers.

Labor’s educaiton spokesman Josh Willie said Tasmanian school students have the worst post-school outcomes and the lowest literacy in the country, the second lowest attendance and retention rates, and a year 12 attainment rate well below the national average.

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But Mr Rockliff said there was also plenty of positive news.

“The Tasmanian Liberal Government is making record investments in education and the latest national Report on Government Services shows we are continuing to make good progress,” he said.

“We are delivering a broad range of important initiatives that we fully expect to improve key data over time, in particular on our attendance, retention and attainment rates.

The Report shows that we are getting the foundations right with almost all Tasmanian families enrolling their children in Kindergarten and more children enrolled for 15 hours or more per week than other jurisdictions.

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Mr Willie said Mr Rockliff should take note of the Productivity Commission’s findings, particularly with regard to the funding model.

“Apart from the Northern Territory, Tasmanian non-government school students receive more funding per capita than in any other jurisdiction.

“Real state government spending per student in public schools has increased by just 1.5% since 2013-14.

“At the same time, real state government spending per student in non-government schools has increased 17.9%.

“Jeremy Rockliff and Peter Gutwein need to address the inequities in the education system. Failing to do so will continue to deliver the same poor results.”

Mr Rockliff acknowledged that there was more work to be done.

“Although we recognise there is still a long way to go for our attainment levels to be at an acceptable level, the 2018 Year 12 attainment rate was 59 per cent, an improvement of nearly 10 percentage points since 2015.

“It is encouraging to see improvements occurring across a broad range of key measures and I look forward to continuing our work, backed by our record $7.1 billion investment in education across four years, towards having more of our young people stay in education for longer and achieving more.”