Report’s bad marks for shire schools

NEIGHBOURING municipalities of Cardinia and Yarra Ranges have received bad report cards for educational achievements.
A report released by the Youth Affairs Council of Victoria (YACVic) and the Victorian Council of Social Services (VCOSS) shows that young people living in the outer areas of Melbourne are less likely to finish high school, go on to further education and more likely to be unemployed than their peers in metropolitan Melbourne.
Yarra Ranges and Cardinia were among Victoria’s bottom 11 municipalities for educational achievement.
Cardinia Shire is concerned that the lack of youth services has led to these poor results and is continuing to invest in programs.
Fiona Hodges, shire manager of community wellbeing said there is a gap in support service for youths and the council is working in conjunction with other fringe councils to fix the problem.
“Cardinia is continuing to invest in our youth and we will develop strategies to provide youth support services effectively and to meet the specific needs of our community. We are aware of the increasing youth population and the limited number of services currently available,” she said.
Cardinia and Yarra Ranges are a part of the interface councils calling for $67.6 million to be spent on youth services across the nine municipalities over the next four years.
Local government currently provides 70 per cent of the funding for young people, the Federal Government is funding 25 per cent and the State Government 5 per cent.
Ms Hodges said the council hopes to receive a reasonable share of funding in order to meet the needs of the rapidly growing youth sector. The Shire of Yarra Ranges was unavailable to make a comment.