College teachers have expressed deep concerns that the introduction of a four term school year will greatly disadvantage Year 11 and 12 students as they prepare for end of year examinations.
A new school calendar which incorporates a four-term year, will place holidays just two weeks before external examinations begin. In secondary colleges now, this is crucial lead up and preparation time for the most important exams in students’ lives.
In a stunning rejection of the bid to change the current three term year, Secondary College teachers have overwhelmingly voted to retain three terms and have rejected the bid to have the school system in Tasmania move to four terms.
In ballots conducted at secondary colleges around the state over 90% of teachers voted in support of the current three term year system.
Greg Brown, AEU President of the Secondary Colleges Sector said: “If Tasmanian schools move to a four term year, Secondary College students will be forced to take holidays just a few weeks before their exams. This is crucial lead up time for the most important exams in a student’s life.”
College students and teachers rely heavily on the uninterrupted window of time that now exists in the current Term 3 to:
• Complete culminating projects
• finalise subject content
• revise course work previously taught and
• prepare students for the exams.
Mr Brown said that changing to a four term year will “drop an extra winding down and starting up time into this crucial period when teachers and students are building towards their Tasmanian Certificate of Education exams.”
“This important educational momentum will be lost as students are forced to take holidays,” he said.
“As well, many TCE subjects require students’ culminating projects to be presented at the time students will be made to take holidays.”
“The four term year proposal lacks logic and scholarship. The people involved in this push for a four-term year would have the Tasmanian Education community believe that students will be more motivated to study for exams at home alone than without the support of their teachers , their fellow students and the resources on hand at their college,” Mr Brown said.
Secondary College teachers are calling on new Education Minister, Nick McKim, to end speculation about the four –term year.
Mr Brown commented, “Mr McKim will understand that the students currently in secondary colleges are the ones that successive state governments have experimented on since the day they started kindergarten twelve years ago. They are the ELs and Tasmania Tomorrow generation.”
“In all of our dealings with Mr McKim he has shown that he is not given to rash decisions. Over the last three years he has shown himself to be a champion of public education. I am confident that he will want to examine properly collected data which measures the gains and losses of any matter before he introduces educational change,” Mr Brown said.
