TASMANIA'S Education Minister has vowed to lift high school performance rates in the new year, amid mounting concern over Tasmania's poor rankings in recent national and international testings.
Minister Nick McKim, right, says he will unveil a bold new plan to improve student performance.
He has enlisted the University of Tasmania to work with the Department of Education to improve the literacy and numeracy skills of high school students, targeting the transition from primary to high school.
A year and a half in to the high stakes role, Mr McKim has boldly predicted academic performance will improve under his leadership, refuting claims Tasmania has the worst education system in the country.
Mr McKim provided an exclusive insight into the future of Tasmania's education system to the Mercury.
Despite Tasmanian primary school students performing well in nationwide Naplan tests, results for secondary students are among the lowest in the country.
"We need to understand why Tasmanian students are not performing to the same level or improving after year 5," he said.
"I asked the Department of Education to examine why, over a four-year period, the data shows Tasmania generally holds its own in national literacy and numeracy assessments [Naplan] compared to other states for years 3 and 5, ranking around fourth or fifth.
"[But] by the time these same students reach years 7 and 9 respectively, their comparative ranking falls to a position of 6th or 7th."
The same trend was evident in a massive international report released this week that showed Australia was doing badly on the world stage.
Thousands of Tasmanian students failed to meet proficiency benchmarks in maths and science, in results from the 2011 Trends in International Reading Literacy Study and the 2011 Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study.
Tasmanian children did well in grade 4 maths, science and reading but fell to seventh in year 8 maths and science.
Mr McKim said he had a plan to tackle the issue.
"I'll be making some announcements early in the new year about our response to what is a historic issue for Tasmania in terms of relatively poor year 7 and year 9 performance," he said.
"We are seeing some improvements ... particularly in primary school years and I'm confident we're on the right track and certainly I'm very much looking forward to next year's Naplan results."
Mr McKim said when he became minister he focused lon improving the performance of Tasmanian schools, teachers and school leaders.
"I'm confident the work we've done over the last 18 months will have a positive impact on educational outcomes and I think we'll see that as we flow through the next couple of years of Naplan results," he said.
"So many people say we have the worst education system in the country, it's just not true."
Mr McKim flagged an increase in regional high schools offering years 11 and 12 and said the college system worked best in urban areas.
"There are 18 high schools in Tasmania that already offer enrolments to year 12, mostly regional schools," he said.
"With feedback from our discussion paper we will develop strategies to better support year 11 and 12 in regional Tasmania and I would expect it's likely that that will include more schools accepting enrolments up to year 12.
"There are very different circumstances in regional areas. I think the college system works really well for the students who live in the greater urban areas."
Mr McKim said his emphasis on supporting teachers and principals was paying off, as was the decision to put Launching into Learning a program for babies to five-year-olds with their parents into every government primary school.
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