“JUST STRETCHING” HIGH SCHOOLS SIMPLY HASN’T WORKED, WRITES JAMES BROAD

The independent review into Tasmania’s 2024 TCE exam errors was scathing of the understaffing and under-resourcing at the regulator responsible, but this problem goes well beyond exam papers.

For 10 years the Tasmanian government has misappropriated scarce educational funding to force every Tasmanian high school to offer courses for year 11 and 12 students, and they have been directed to run 11 and 12 – even when enrolments are minimal and a college is close by.

In the meantime, other key functions of year 11 and 12 education have withered into crisis. 

(James Broad, Deputy President – Secondary Colleges Committee of Management)

As Deloitte found, the Tasmanian Assessment, Standards and Certification (TASC) is barely able to perform its core duties, but curriculum writing is also a mess. 

The government’s 9-12 curriculum framework was meant to revolutionise education and keep students engaged to the end of year 12. It has been abandoned, and in its place is a curriculum writing vacuum. 

Students are left with courses that are not fit for purpose. A basic English course has students analysing how transdisciplinary multimodal texts create meaning; a skill nearly no-one needs and is so abstract that most students don’t understand it. 

There are so few staff in senior secondary provision to write and review curriculum that teachers have been asked to volunteer their time, essentially replacing paid curriculum writers by getting overworked teachers to do it for nothing. 

(Image: Freepik)

Tasmania’s TCE is the hardest leaving certificate in Australia and is full of weird quirks that have turned learning into a game of gathering ticks and points. It also, bizarrely, counts leaving school for an apprenticeship as a failure. It needs drastic overhauling.

This government refuses to support year 11 and 12 students who are struggling in mainstream schools, instead cutting critical tier-4 funding for these students, leading to a rise in concerning behaviour. 

Despite millions being pumped into 11-12 high schools, instead of some educational utopia, students who stay at high school have far less choice, worse attendance and are much less likely to gain the TCE and at far greater cost per student.

Education is much more complicated than the simplistic notion that grade 10 leavers’ dinners and colleges lead to worse outcomes. Inequity and social disadvantage do, as actual education expert Pasi Sahlberg points out, and Tasmania has these in spades. 

Similarly, taking funding from early intervention and supporting students to pay for it has done untold damage. Success in the last two years of school is actually built upon the foundations of a child’s early years and early schooling. 

Most students still attend colleges because there is a lot to celebrate about our colleges. The concentration of senior students allows Tasmania to run more courses and specialised subjects than any other state. An interstate colleague was astounded that in Tasmania, a college could offer 22 VET courses. Students completing these specialised vocational courses receive a nationally recognised, job-ready qualification. In NSW, a big school might offer three. 

Far from being a difficult transition, the transition to college provides students with a fresh start in a supportive adult learning environment, free from the rules required in high schools. Students can find their own niche and new friends. 

Canberra has the highest 11-12 attainment rate in the country and they have year 11 and 12 colleges, modelled on what we do in Tasmania.

We now have some high schools running years 11-12 for less than five students: high schools that are literally within walking distance of a college, running the exact same course as that college, and all at great expense. Each of these classes must be staffed or the student supervised while they learn online; yes, many of these students are completing classes online, while a face-to-face class is running just up the road. 

Teacher workload increases dramatically as they must learn a completely different regime, with little support. These schools also need an extra senior teacher to oversee compliance with TASC regulations. 

This overstaffing of 11-12 in high schools is happening at the same time as a chronic staffing shortage is gripping our education system.

Ten years is a long time, and the evidence is clear: duplicating years 11 and 12 in all high schools has not worked. The irony is that the money thrown at this failed policy has come at the expense of things that are known to help student engagement and attainment, such as targeted support in primary schools, but also at the expense of the smooth running of the senior secondary sector. 

No-one is arguing that isolated schools should not run 11 and 12 courses, but there is no justification for schools such as Rose Bay and Clarence high schools to be doing this, when Rosny College is such a short distance away. This is an incredible waste of staffing and resources and must come to an end.

James Broad is deputy president of the Australian Education Union – Tasmanian Branch.

Published in The Mercury as ‘JUST STRETCHING ALL HIGH SCHOOLS HASN’T WORKED‘ – Tuesday, 7 October 2025.