As thousands of students returned to school this week, Tasmania's continuing to lag behind other state's on the proportion of students continuing to year 12. In 2014, the Liberal state government promised to improve completion rates but it's now resisting calls to review the education system.
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00:00 School's back in Tasmania, but not everyone who can go, will go.
00:06 Do you think you'll finish year 12?
00:08 No, might try an apprenticeship, keep studying, anything like that.
00:13 The Productivity Commission's new figures showing nearly half of the state's students aren't finishing year 12.
00:19 In 2022, 53% of Tasmanians in that year 12 age bracket actually finished year 12.
00:26 Nationally, that figure was 76%. The number of Tasmanians that continued after year 10 is the lowest of any state in the country at 71%.
00:36 That's about 8% lower than the national retention rate.
00:40 The Liberals promised to extend all public high schools to year 12 before they were elected in 2014, with the aim of keeping more kids in classrooms.
00:49 My vision for this state of Tasmania is to lead the nation in education and it starts today.
00:56 So why isn't it working? We asked now Premier Jeremy Rockleff.
01:01 Well it is working and it's working for rural and regional communities.
01:05 He says legal changes made by his government force kids who leave school early to go to work.
01:10 The great thing is that we have young people either at school, either in training or at work.
01:16 What I would like to see is more political will to implement change.
01:20 As of last year, all of Tasmania's public high schools now offer year 11 and 12 curriculums.
01:25 Before that, any student that wanted to get their Tasmanian Certificate of Education had to go to one of the eight senior colleges found across the state.
01:34 Education experts say the reasons behind Tasmania's consistently low year 12 attainment rates are complex.
01:40 We actually need to dig a little bit deeper to understand the reasons behind that statistic.
01:47 Young people in Tasmania do take a little bit longer to complete year 12 or it might mean that rather than getting a TCE, there might be an education to do vocational education and training.
01:58 A challenge requiring further study.
02:01 [BLANK_AUDIO]