The State Labor Government must fund the progressive upgrading and replacement of teacher laptops in Tasmanian public schools.
Four years ago, Paula Wriedt recognised the importance of teachers having up to date laptops to help ensure that teachers were trained and comfortable with everyday use of computers as a teaching and information tool.
Now as I visit schools, I am regularly told that their laptops are not powerful enough to run the software, keep breaking down and are just not up to the task. They are out of warranty as well as out of date.
I brought a motion on this matter on for debate in the Parliament today, and while I welcome the tripartite support for our motion, it is clear that the Premier fails to recognise the urgency of beginning to progressively replace teacher laptops
According to the Premier, over 65 laptops per month – out of 4000 computers in total – have “warranty issues”, but this doesn’t even include the number of times that technicians have to attend to computers and the time that takes.
When I raised this issue in Parliament today, the Premier failed to indicate when he would begin to replace the out of date computers, what funding options he was considering, whether funding for the laptops should be built into school resource packages and whether the recently completely School Resource Review had dealt with this issue.
He also failed to explain what progress was being made on deciding on the model of computers to be used. The answer he gave to this about trialing ‘netbooks’ was the same given about 4 months ago.
The Premier needs to start to answer some of these questions that we have asked on behalf of teachers and schools, particularly in light of the National Broadband rollout. Those that will be still working just won’t be up to the job when the rollout happens.
The Tasmanian Liberals view access to computers for both students and teachers as an essential tool to ensure that teaching is increasingly based on individualised education programs for students. The recent unacceptable literacy and numeracy results show that this is clearly a vital issue for getting the best out of teaching and learning.
Sue Napier MP Shadow Minister for Education
