Cafe Society: Governor Edu-Kate’s mission to fix Tasmania’s schooling system

GOVERNOR Kate Warner has some strong views on education and the value of teachers.

Governor Kate Warner has some strong views on education and the value of teachers, including raising the entrance requirements for teaching degrees. Picture: SAM ROSEWARNE

IT tends to strike her as she comes down the driveway towards the palatial vice-regal residence. “Are you really Governor?” Kate Warner asks herself.

“Coming to terms with the fact I am in this role is my biggest challenge, even after 3½ years,” Her Excellency confides over a cuppa in the conservatory at Government House.

Her Official Secretary has deemed it more appropriate for us to meet here than at a cafe. Professor Warner and her husband Dick often eat lunch here if it’s just them or if they are dining with one or two others, as they did yesterday with the High Commissioner of India and his wife, their house guests.

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From afar the Governor’s role looks rarefied, but in our hour-long conversation Prof Warner rarely strays from the lives and concerns of ordinary people. Though she is a criminologist “who knows a lot about disadvantage and where that leads”, coming face-to-face with the extent of disadvantage in Tasmania as Governor has shocked and horrified her.

Its link with Tasmania’s low literacy rate and poor educational outcomes has galvanised her. If we could do just one thing to improve the lives of many Tasmanians, she says let’s get better educated.

Governor Warner says the entry requirements for a teaching degree should be much harder.

It is a theme, like gender equality, that runs through many of the hundreds of speeches she makes each year. And it is her focus as chair of the advisory committee for The Underwood Centre for Educational Attainment.

“We’ve got to change,” she says.

I have been an academic and university is central to me. I see it as an economic enabler here.

Prof Warner supports the expansion of public high schools to Year 12, bringing Tasmania into line with the rest of Australia. She also supports the retention of colleges, but wants to see more collaboration between staff.

“We need more [teacher] swapping between high school and colleges, which doesn’t seem to happen,” she says. “Once teachers get into the college system, they seem to stay there for life.

“Until recently many [high school] principals didn’t even know how many of their kids went on and successfully completed Year 12 [at college]. Now they are tracking what is happening to them.”

Prof Warner believes school teachers and early childhood workers should be paid more to reflect their great value to the community.

She wants to see more Child and Family Centres opening in lower socio-economic areas [there are currently 12] to provide access to numerous services improving the health and other outcomes of children from birth to five years. Prof Warner would like even more services integrated, including mobile dental clinics. “It’s the co-location of things that is the brilliant idea,” she says.

When it comes to educating our future educators, she advocates raising the entrance requirements for teaching degrees. “In countries with very good education outcomes, it’s much harder to get into an education degree,” she says.

Government House, Domain, Hobart, Tasmania. File pics. Governor, Government, Kate Warner. Picture: MATT THOMPSON

This brings us to Prof Warner’s big vision for Hobart as a university city.

“It is based on the fact that I have been an academic and university is central to me. I see it as an economic enabler here.”

She has lived for short periods in university cities including the UK’s Oxford and Freiburg in Germany. “[Having students in the heart of the city] creates a very vibrant town. Hobart could make a wonderful university town and I support the University of Tasmania becoming more visible and moving into the city.”

In Warner’s ideal university town, there would be fewer cars in central Hobart. She would prioritise pedestrians and cyclists. “I see Hobart being very student and tourist-friendly as a result,” she says.

As an academic you are encouraged to say what you think … [Now] I have to be careful I don’t cross the boundary and say something inappropriate

Is it a realistic vision to become a university city when only half of our population is functionally literate and only half of our teenagers successfully complete Year 12?

“We have to counter that,” she says.

“If we could better or even match NSW and Victoria with their 70 per cent-plus completion rate, many more Tasmanians would qualify for a university education and go on to benefit from it. That would mark the beginning of a profound upward trajectory for coming generations.”

In Prof Warner’s future Tasmania, reconciliation has been achieved. She believes many people don’t realise there has been an unbroken thread in many cultural practices. “We need to celebrate that, and the continuing identity of Aboriginal people.”

She says it is important that Tasmanian children learn their Frontier War history and for that war to be formally commemorated.

Along with her occasional flashes of impostor syndrome, Prof Warner says she is most challenged in her role by the need to self-censor.

“As an academic you are encouraged to say what you think … [Now] I have to be careful I don’t cross the boundary and say something inappropriate, something that can be regarded as too political.”

She is remembering the storm when she commented on Pauline Hanson’s attack on Muslim immigration.

“They say a good public servants’ rule is ‘If you have to think twice about it, don’t say it’, but I didn’t even think twice,” she says.

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