Everything in duplicate

Walking into any one of the many ex-TAFE buildings around Tasmania can be a confusing and perplexing experience.

Everything is in duplicate.

There are now two government run organisations using the same buildings: The Tasmanian Polytechnic and the Skills Institute. Each offer identical courses, albeit to a slightly different clientele, competing for the same limited resources, in the same locations but using different staff and run completely independently of each other.

At three Campus’ for example in almost the same corridors there are two Community Services, two Children’s Services, two Disability Services, two Aged Care and two Health Services departments. There are also two secretaries, team leaders, two lots of teachers, duplications in materials and resources overseen by two huge and cumbersome bureaucracies.

Similar duplication in other teaching areas can be found in almost every other campus.

These are the services which were once provided by TAFE Tasmania with one set of teachers, administrative assistants, team leaders and only one cumbersome bureaucracy. This was an organisation which won several National Awards with over 92% of its graduates gaining employment and highly regarded in the community.

The net result of Bartlett’s Folly, Tasmania Tomorrow, is that we wasted $20 million dollars, the Colleges emerged essentially unscathed, a once effective and well respected training provider has been torn apart greatly increasing the cost of providing Vocational Education and Training in this State.

The solution to this absurdity: sack librarians, teachers and administrative staff from the Polytechnic, the very people who have worked so hard to try and make the unworkable work.

Why did we do all this in the first place? To try and encourage Grade Ten students to go onto further study, a goal which I feel may be lost on the staff and families who will lose their jobs as a result of government duplicity, duplication and deception.