Tassie schools perform above national average: Auditor-General

In response to the release today of the Auditor-General report into teaching quality in Tasmania, Terry Polglase, AEU Tasmanian Branch President, said:

“The Auditor-General’s report on the teaching quality in Tasmanian public high schools comes as no surprise.”

“The report confirms what we have been saying all along — ‘socio-educational’ factors such as parental education and employment status must be taken into account when comparing education performance between states.”

“The report shows that when our high levels of poverty and disadvantage are taken into account we perform better than similar schools in other states.”

“Tasmanian teachers do an amazing job with limited resources and could do much more with needs based funding which is why Gonski funding reform is so critical to our state.”

“We are also pleased that the Auditor-General has noted that direct retention rates for Tasmanian students, from Year 10 to Year 12, had steadily improved between 2008 and 2012 and that the more widely reported measure of apparent retention rate was considered to be far less accurate.”

Download AG report:
AG_report_on_teacher_quality_26June2014.docx