Education revamp disappoints academy boss

Education revamp disappoints academy boss

The head of the Tasmanian Academy says the abolition of its board is a politically expedient move that disrupts academic progress.
Post year-10 students are facing their third revamp in as many years, after the Greens convinced Labor to abandon the Premier's Tasmanian Tomorrow brainchild.
The Academy and Polytechnic boards will both be abolished.
The Academy and Polytechnic brands will remain but each of state's eight campuses will regain their college identities and the sector will be back under the control of the Education Department.
Tasmania Tomorrow replaced the old colleges with Academy and Polytechnic campuses in 2009 but only five have made the switch.
From next year the colleges that have already become campuses of the Academy and Polytechnic will be able to revert to their old names.
The chair of the Academy's Board, Kim Boyer, says the Labor-Green decision to restructure the system is disappointing.
She says the TCE achievements on the Academy's four campuses were significant last year.
"We're concerned that the new structure might simply return to colleges competing with each other rather than working together," she said.
The Polytechnic's Chief Executive Belinda McLennan has welcomed the changes and says it will ensure the progress made over the last 18 months is not lost.
The Skills Institute which offers industry training will run as a separate entity.
The Premier, David Bartlett, has told ABC Local Radio it was not the end of his Tasmania Tomorrow system.
"This is not a demise of the original intent of the reforms. I think what we've achieved over the last two years has been significant but what the acheivements have been of course have been lost in the obvious implementation problems," he said.
While both the Liberals and the Greens campaigned to restore the colleges, the latter would not support the Opposition's bill to roll back Tasmanian Tomorrow.
The Greens' Education spokesman, Paul O'Halloran, says supporting Labor's changes is the quickest option.
"Labor has moved a huge way towards our model and if you look at the Liberals' policy they said nothing about TAFE, there was nothing about Tasmanian Skills Institute, there was nothing about adult learning," he said.
"We've factored in things here to actually put in place safeguards to make sure that these institutes are insulated."
Challenges remain
The Education Union's Greg Brown says the changes will ease problems with Tasmania Tomorrow's administration and leadership but there's still work to be done.
"What we've got is the restoration of the secondary colleges. We still have a Skills Institute and there is still a Polytechnic, so I'd say that it is a partial roll back."
"It doesn't really address our concerns in the TAFE sector but it certainly addresses the concerns for the secondary colleges," he said.
"For the first time in 18 months college teachers, and college support staff around the state are going to have a smile on their faces, they're going to be absolutely happy."
"The teachers and support staff in the Polytechnic and the Skills Institute will have a different a different reaction I am sure and I think that will be a lot more problematical for the Government."
Parents have welcomed the Government's reversal.
The President of State School Parents and Friends, Jenny Grossmith, hopes the changes will result in clearer communication.
"It's been really difficult for the parents and students on the ground to deal with two different areas that actually don't work together," she said.
"So if it comes back under the Department of Education that means there is one bureaucracy, if I can put it like that, that's actually in charge of what's going on."
Source Link: http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2010/06/08/2921098.htm