Why Tasmania Has a Particular Need to Increase Educational Participation

Abstract

This chapter tells the story of education in Australia’s island state of Tasmania with a focus on educational performance, engagement, and rates of youth criminal offences. It begins by presenting evidence of low educational participation rate in Tasmania, particularly at the levels of Years 11 and 12 and for tertiary education. The chapter then reports Tasmanian students’ lack of educational engagement. Of all Australian states and territories, Tasmania has the highest rate of students who drop out of their schooling in Year 10. This position is particularly important since Part A of the book is about the expansion and diversification of the student intake to higher education. The next section, outlines concerning trends in Tasmanian primary and secondary school students’ performance on Australia’s only large-scale assessment, the National Assessment Program–Literacy and Numeracy tests, since testing began in 2008. The results emphasise Tasmanian students’ poor educational performance relative to students in other Australian states and territories. Performance in key areas has actually declined when compared to results from a decade ago. The chapter then considers statistics of youth criminal offences in Tasmania, which are amongst the highest in Australia. Such activities are directly associated with lower rates of educational performance and engagement.