Last Thursday I sat in an awards ceremony and I heard and saw the reaction of the children to the announcement of the teachers who would not be returning to our school.
There were gasps of dismay as much loved teachers were called to the front to receive farewell presents.
These teachers had been embraced by our community, they had become part of us and our children had looked forward to being in their classes next year.
These cuts are not about numbers they are about 266 real people and the school communities that over the next few days will begin to grieve at the loss of treasured members of their teams.
Every school that loses staff will have a disrupted start to the year as they try and reorganise and shuffle the remaining teachers to cover the yawning gaps that will be left behind. Minister Rockliff sends a form letter that tells us that our school will only lose 0.9 of a teacher.
He doesn’t write to tell us that because of the increased enrolments we should have been getting another teacher, so in effect we are losing 1.9 teachers.
He doesn’t write to tell us that none of our contract teachers can be guaranteed a place at our school and so instead of losing 0.9 of a teacher we will have about a third of our existing teaching staff replaced.
The implications of these cuts and the instability and disruption they bring to schools are more far reaching than any of the form letters the Minister is happy to send to School Associations.
Parents are asking this Government to listen and wake up to the damage they are doing to schools right across Tasmania. We want them to find another way and show us that they can do more than talk the talk.
Teresa O’Leary, South Hobart Primary and Taroona High parent
