Ms O’CONNOR question to MINISTER for EDUCATION, Ms PALMER
Minister, you were asked in the other place this morning about Tasmania’s poor performance in the Program for International Student Assessment (PISA) 2025 results, which were – we’ve seen some bad results here for educational attainment and outcomes, but these are shocking. Tasmania is the lowest performer of all states and territories in mathematics, lower than 26 OECD countries. The equal lowest performer of all states and territories in reading literacy along with the Northern Territory. The second lowest state or territory and scientific literacy, with only the Northern Territory lower.
Minister, you told the House about the year level of the Tasmanians that were being assessed being different to other states, but that does not explain the persistent decline in performance in Tasmania’s results over the past 15 to 20 years. Between 2000 and 2025 mean reading performance declined by 50 points; the level of proficiency in mathematics fell from 61 per cent in 2003 to 36 per cent in 2025; and in science subjects, the level of proficiency has dropped from 59 per cent in 2006 to 49 per cent in 2025. Minister, I am sure you will agree those results are not good enough. You have cited multi-school organisations as part of the solution to this alarming result, but we’d also like to hear about your understanding of what the causes are for this persistent concerning trend that’s impacting on our young learners and generationally will have an impact, and what exactly will you do as minister to address those causes?
ANSWER
I thank the honourable member for the question. I acknowledge the Program for International Student Assessment, known as PISA, 2025 results. It is important to give a little bit of context around PISA. It is a sample of 15-year-olds and is not based on school years. So, unlike other jurisdictions in Tasmania, the majority of students assessed are in year 9, given the later starting age. Consequently, students in other jurisdictions are more likely to have benefited from an additional year of schooling before undertaking the assessment as a lot of 15-year-olds in other states and territories are in grade 10, whereas most of ours are in grade 9. Our government is committed to improving student outcomes and supporting teachers to deliver high‑impact teaching and we are making record investment in education and undertaking some really bold and innovative system‑wide education reform to lift outcomes for every student.
I thank you for mentioning our multi-school organisations in your question because, internationally, it is that system that has seen an unbelievable lift in student achievement, also in teacher satisfaction and in system performance and it was the Grattan Institute that actually recommended their trial in every state and territory and it was great to hear the federal Education minister Jason Clare acknowledge that there are lessons to be learned from the UK. And, of course, Tasmania is now leading the way nationally. We already have our pilot up and running for multi-school organisations. MSO 1, based in the south, began this year and MSO 2 has been launched and will commence at the beginning of next year. So, we know that we have seen record investment into education. We’ve seen some amazing reforms, especially around that structured and explicit teaching of literacy in our schools. From 2027, there will also be the mandated one hour of the structured and explicit teaching of numeracy. We also know that it is the system that manages our education and our schools that we need to now turn our attention to, in light of the amazing results we are seeing coming out of the UK. It’s fantastic to be already in our first year of that trial. Other states and territories are looking at Tasmania and how multi-school organisations can make an impact. Importantly, too, we are evaluating that trial and have been from day one to ensure that there is a very robust evaluation of the outcomes because that is what we are looking for – those outcomes.
I want to acknowledge we have amazing kids in our schools and we have some absolutely amazing teachers and educators. We have seen that record investment, we’ve seen some great reforms roll out. When we do see these results, we have to turn our attention to how we actually delivering education as a system. That is a challenge that our government has embraced. As I say, we are into year one of a five‑year trial.
Ms O’CONNOR question to MINISTER for EDUCATION, Ms PALMER
I have a follow-up question for the minister. We hear quite often that this government has made a record investment in education. That record investment is obviously not showing in the results that our learners are able to achieve when held against the national standard. The NAPLAN results mirror in large part the PISA results that came out yesterday. I don’t think the reasoning that you have given about 15-year-olds being in different grades applies when we’re talking about NAPLAN. There is a systemic problem there. My question to you was what work has DECYP undertaken on the causes of this chronic issue in our students’ level of learning in those key subjects of literacy, maths and science?
What I will say is, you ask what is the department, what is the government doing? It is the multi-school organisations. That is what we’re doing. We have extraordinary people working in our schools, great principals, great literacy experts, teachers, amazing TAs. We have brilliant kids, some of them doing just extraordinary stuff. When you couple that with record investment and then you look at consistent outcomes of student achievement, you then have to turn your attention to what the system is that is actually delivering education. That is a challenge that we have met head-on. As I say, we are now well established in the trial for multi‑school organisations. The actual Pisa results have shown in the UK, where this has been implemented for a number of years now, that really fantastic results are coming through with the outcomes of student learning. We are very committed to that.
What I will say though is that education is a very big ship to be turned, and we are now starting to see some amazing outcomes when it comes to educational outcomes for our children. Unfortunately we’re not going to have the benefit of Tasmania having access to NAPLAN results this year because of industrial action that happened earlier in the year, which is unfortunate but is what it is. I can certainly say when we’re looking at our Lifting Literacy initiative, which has been in play for around three years now, I think we now have 100 per cent of our schools on board with Lifting Literacy. At the end of 2023, of year 1 students 50 per cent had met or exceeded expected phonics levels. By the end of 2025, this had increased to 57 per cent. If you look at progressive assessment tests (PAT), it also shows increases in achievement across prep to year 10. In 2025, students’ achievement in reading increased by 1.3 percentage points from 2024.
We are excited as we have more time to see these reforms play out. As I say, we understand that you know big reforms like this do take time, but it is incredibly exciting to go and visit schools and to be greeted by some of our literacy coaches who are showing me their students results that have absolutely are on an amazing trajectory in light of the Lifting Literacy initiative that we have seen in playing out for a number of years.
Mr PRESIDENT – The honourable member for Rumney, and happy birthday to you, as foreshadowed by the honourable member for Hobart.
Members – Hear, hear.
