By MELISSA MEEHAN
Funding cuts stifle growing demand for alternative education
A SURGE in demand for alternative education has left Mountain District Learning Centre (MDLC) unable to accommodate those wanting to enrol.
While the centre has 80 students enrolled in its VCE and VCAL courses, Academic Programs co-ordinator Carlie Case said there were 50 people still on the waiting list.
And the centre is receiving more and more calls each day.
During a meeting facilitated by Labor candidate for Ferntree Gully Matt Posetti and Opposition Minister for Higher Education, Steve Herbert, staff at the MDLC spoke of their plight.
“We can’t meet the need that is out there,” Ms Case said.
“We get calls from schools, to place kids that don’t fit into the usual school system, from youth workers working with kids who have dropped out of school – we get calls every day.”
When pressed for reasons for the surge, Ms Case replied that funding cuts played a huge part.
“The closure of Swinburne, Morrisons and cuts to VCAL funding has really affected us,” she said.
“We’re a small centre, but we’ve reached capacity.
“And we can’t expand now, because we need to save some money if the funding structure changes again.”
Ms Case said those on the waiting list often had no other place to go.
“They’ve taken that step to try and get an education or certificate so they can get into the workforce and now we have to say to them, you’ll need to wait for a term,” she said.
“Often they won’t come back.”
Board member Chris Markwick said there had been seven or eight funding structure changes to courses in the last year.
They said for some courses funding from the government had changed from $9 to $1.50 – leaving a pretty big hole in the budget.
“So we are holding money back that we should be spending because we don’t know what is happening next,” Mr Markwick said.
“There is so much uncertainty in the total sector.”
While Mr Posetti and Mr Herbert listened to the issues raised by staff, no funding promises were made in the lead-up to the election.
They instead asked what they wanted from a government in terms of what MDLC offered.
Ms Case said it was important that the government of the day recognised the complexity of student needs.
“Each student is different, they may have behavioural differences, literacy and numeracy issues,” she said.
“And we don’t qualify for integration aides, so often our teachers are working on six different teaching plans for one class.”
Mr Markwick said red tape meant a lot of time was spent keeping up with compliance certifications.
“We’re not a rogue operator, but we need to go through rigorous testing often,” he said.
“And an understanding of the needs of our communities – we’re full and they’re full, so where do these kids go?”
Mr Herbet said that if his party was returned to government, he would do an audit of youth demand and unemployment in the suburbs of the area.
“It doesn’t make sense to send kids away who want to get into the job queue,” Mr Herbert said.
“I’ve been all around the state, and they’ve given similar responses.”
