Parents grill Hodgman and Rockliff on Teachers’ Cuts

Parent representatives of South Hobart, Taroona, Moonah, Bellerive and Albuera Street Primary Schools and Taroona High School met with Premier Will Hodgman and Minister for Education Jeremy Rockliff on Thursday to ask them to find a way to keep teachers in schools. These are the issues that we raised with the Premier and Minister, and some of their responses.

Literacy programs are likely to be casualties of these cuts. These programs provide huge longterm value to our children’s education.

“There is a window of time in which we can teach children literacy and numeracy optimally, and if you miss that window, what will happen to that child is irrevocable,” said Albuera Street parent Lisa Schimanski.

Children with special learning needs are particularly at risk from these cuts, as targeted literacy and numeracy programs are likely to be among the first casualties. One parent shared the story of her daughter who has dyslexia, which led to severe loss of self-esteem, so much that she was hiding under her bed and self-harming. Now, having transferred to a school with dyslexia support, her daughter is a happy little girl who loves going to school. As we also heard from children themselves at the rally, literacy programs such as dyslexia support make a real difference to their mental and social wellbeing, as well as their educational outcomes.

Overcrowding and larger class sizes are becoming unmanageable. Already, prior to these cuts, Hobart’s schools are struggling to accommodate the growing number of students. Several schools have reported having to split classrooms into two to create more classrooms, turning office spaces, bike sheds and corridors into teaching space.

“When you get 30 children in a prep class – which is what some schools are being forced to consider next year – how can a teacher be expected to spend time with all those children individually, to understand their individual learning needs and to educate them, rather than having to focus on control and discipline of such a large group?” asked Taroona parent Julian Watchorn.

South Hobart Parent Theresa O’Leary asked the Premier to take responsibility for the results of his decision-making: “Our children have one shot at an education. If we wait for you to fix the budget my daughter will finish school without getting the best education Tasmania has to offer, and that sits on your shoulders, because these are your decisions, you are cutting her education, you are cutting her future.”

Money invested in the children of today is invested in the future of Tasmania. These cuts will impact today, they will impact communities dealing with the ripple effects of students and teachers struggling in overcrowded classes, and they will impact tomorrow, as our children become adults but lack a quality education. These cuts will hurt Tasmania’s future. They will hurt our sons and our daughters.

The Premier and Minister told us that they plan to honour six years of Gonski funding that will mean a 5% increase to school budgets. However as Moonah Primary School parent Lindy Bowden put it, Gonski funding on top of teacher cuts is “like giving us the pie and taking the table”.

The Government has said that they want to invest in Tasmania’s future, and we would like them to do that. We appeal to them to go back to the table with the unions, to reassess the budget and look for other places to make savings, but not to take teachers from our schools.

We ask that if cuts must be made to education that they are made through a considered process, with all effort taken not to cut jobs from the front line.

The Minister talked about rolling out a program of putting a child health nurse in every school. He says this was very successful when trialled in a north-west school, and will give support to both teachers and students. We feel that that a nurse is not as valuable to a school as a teacher, and that this money would be better spent on keeping teachers in schools.

The Premier told us that he could not see a way to resolve this issue that did not involve cutting teachers’ jobs. We disagree. We appeal to the government to recognise the rights of our children and the paramount importance of their education, and to make other choices to repair the budget that do not take away from our schools.

Parents voiced their frustration on this issue the Tasmanian State Schools Organisation (TASSO) state-wide meeting on Saturday. TASSO will represent parents in actively engaging with unions and government to seek another solution. Parents are speaking up for the rights of their children to a good education that enables them to fulfil their potential throughout their lives. We believe that this should be sacrosanct in any budget seeking to build Tasmania’s future prosperity.
Teresa O’Leary, South Hobart Primary and Taroona High parent