Education

Where we stand

One Nation Tasmania believes schools exist first and foremost to educate children. That means safe and orderly classrooms, strong literacy and numeracy, real knowledge, high expectations and teachers who have the authority to teach.

Tasmania's education system has failed our young people by not matching what is taught in the classroom to the skills needed to take a well-paid job. One Nation's education policy will better align student learning with the skills needed for future success.

Education should be guided by evidence and what works, not passing educational fashions, ideology or classroom experimentation. Our kids are not experiments.

We back good teachers, strong principals and involved parents. Teachers should be able to teach without being buried in unnecessary paperwork or left to manage persistent disruption alone. Principals should have the authority to lead their schools and uphold standards. Parents have a right to know what their children are being taught, how they are progressing and what outside programs are operating in their school. Students and families also have responsibilities — attendance, behaviour and effort matter.

Tasmania cannot keep treating higher spending as a substitute for higher standards. A 2019 Australian study of high-performing disadvantaged schools found common features including high expectations, disciplined classrooms, direct and explicit instruction, strong leadership, data-informed practice and effective early reading instruction. Those successful schools were not receiving more funding than comparable disadvantaged schools. We should judge our education system by whether children are learning and whether young people leave school ready for life, work and further education, not by how much money government announces.

The issues

Too many Tasmanian children are falling behind, disengaging from education or leaving school without the knowledge, skills and qualifications they need to flourish. The Productivity Commission's 2024 Report on Government Services reported Year 12 attainment of just 53 per cent in Tasmania, compared with 76 per cent nationally. Tasmania's own Independent Review of Education also found that the average attendance rate for Years 1 to 10 was 86.4 per cent in 2023, based on ACARA attendance data, with attendance falling as students move through the later years of schooling.

What happens inside the classroom matters too. In the OECD's 2018 PISA survey, 43 per cent of Australian 15-year-olds reported being in noisy and disruptive classrooms, compared with an OECD average of 33 per cent. Australia ranked 69th of 76 participating education systems for classroom disciplinary climate. Persistent disruption, poor attendance and students falling behind cost valuable learning time and make it harder for teachers to do the job they entered the profession to do.

The consequences follow young Tasmanians beyond the school gate. Students who fall behind or disengage can struggle through the senior years or leave without a clear pathway into further study, training or work. Tasmania cannot afford another generation of children drifting through a system that expects too little and supports too late.

Our priorities

1. Restore order, discipline and teacher authority. Make every classroom a safe and orderly place to learn, with clear expectations for behaviour and strong backing for teachers and principals to maintain standards.
2. Get the basics right. Put reading, writing, mathematics and a knowledge-rich curriculum back at the centre of schooling. Use evidence-based teaching methods and provide early help to students who fall behind.
3. Back teachers and principals to do their jobs. Improve practical teacher preparation and ongoing support, reduce unnecessary bureaucracy, empower more decision-making at the school leadership level, and ensure specialist expertise is available when students need additional help.
4. Make attendance and personal responsibility matter again. Restore regular school attendance as a basic expectation, intervene earlier when students disengage and ensure persistent non-attendance is treated seriously rather than accepted as inevitable.
5. Put parents back at the centre. Give parents clear information about what their children are learning and how they are progressing. Protect political neutrality in government schools and ensure families have meaningful options when a school persistently fails to meet basic standards.
6. Restore knowledge, civic understanding and purpose. Strengthen the teaching of Australian and Tasmanian history, civics, science, geography and essential knowledge so that young people develop a clear understanding of their country, its institutions and their responsibilities as citizens, while ensuring classrooms are not used as platforms for political activism.
7. Build real pathways into work and adulthood. Strengthen vocational, technical and academic pathways, improve the transition into the senior years and ensure Tasmania's education system values skilled trades, training and practical learning alongside university pathways.

What this means for Tasmanians

For students: calmer classrooms, stronger foundations and genuine pathways into university, training, trades or work.

For parents: greater confidence that schools will focus on learning, behaviour and achievement, with clearer information about how your child is progressing and what they are being taught.

For teachers and principals: stronger authority, practical support and more time to teach and lead instead of being buried in bureaucracy.

For employers: an education system focused on producing capable, skilled and work-ready young Tasmanians while getting better results from every education dollar.

For regional communities: better teacher recruitment, genuine vocational pathways and access to quality education outside the urban centres.

Tasmania should have schools that teach well, expect more and prepare young people to stand on their own two feet.

What comes next

This baseline policy sets out where One Nation Tasmania stands on education and the priorities that will guide our detailed policy work.

We will develop specific commitments through community consultation, engagement with teachers, principals, parents and employers, and careful assessment of what has worked in other jurisdictions. Further policy releases will follow as this work progresses.

If you work in education, employ young Tasmanians, or simply care about the future of our schools, we want to hear from you.