Branch Executive of the state’s education union has endorsed a member ballot on the Rockliff Government’s latest Teachers Agreement offer.

After more than 18 months of negotiations, Australian Education Union teacher and support staff leaders were pleased to receive an offer delivering significant member benefits which meets many of the Lifting Learning objectives developed by educators.

AEU members will this week receive and vote on the complete offer presented to the AEU, with the union’s Branch Executive recommending a ‘Yes’ vote to its members.

AEU Tasmania President David Genford praised educators for standing up and taking action to deliver better conditions for Tasmania’s schools and colleges.

“It shouldn’t have taken the threat of stop-work action for the Rockliff Government to present an offer with some in-class support measures,” he said.

“But AEU members should be proud to have taken a stand for public education and see their action result in some significant steps taken to lift learning here in Tasmania.”

Mr Genford said the latest offer wasn’t a panacea to solve the state’s education crisis, but it did deliver some steps forward.

He said among the wins for educators in the latest offer were solutions for protecting teachers’ time from excessive administration and meetings, more in-class support, more professional support staff in schools, better pay and improved support for new teachers.

“The tabled offer represents what can be achieved when union members stand as one and fight for what is right – there is power in union and I congratulate all educator members for helping deliver better results for our education system.

“We will continue to hold our Governments to account until Tasmania’s teacher shortage is fixed and every school and child is funded to the national minimum standard.”

Mr Genford also thanked community members and organisations for their support of the AEU’s Lifting Learning campaign.