Bendigo Senior Secondary Struggles To Keep VCAL

The Baillieu Government’s cuts to the Victorian Certificate of Applied Learning have had a significant impact on Bendigo Senior Secondary College’s ability to offer a range of courses, Shadow Minister for Education James Merlino said today.

Visiting the college with Member for Bendigo West Maree Edwards, Mr Merlino said Education Minister Martin Dixon’s claims that the cuts wouldn’t affect the delivery of VCAL were nonsense.

“Since the start of the year, students and staff at Bendigo Senior Secondary are feeling the impact of the $50 million cuts to VCAL,” Mr Merlino said.

“Mr Dixon has previously claimed that cutting funding for course coordinators will only impact ‘the coordination of the program’ and it wouldn’t affect ‘the delivery of the VCAL program’.

“The situation at Bendigo Senior Secondary College proves that Mr Dixon is wrong and the cuts are impacting other curriculum areas outside of VCAL.

“Having lost $126,000 in funding, Bendigo Senior Secondary has made a range of changes to ensure the popular program was made available this year.

“The principal has been forced to increase class sizes, cut teaching hours and even reduce teaching staff to fill the gap in the budget made by the Baillieu Government’s funding cut.”

Ms Edwards said students in Bendigo and throughout the region were paying the price as the Baillieu Government refused to reinstate the funding for program.

“VCAL and VCE students across the Bendigo region now have less options than last year,” Ms Edwards said.

“Mr Dixon may still believe the $12 million a year funding cut won’t impact schools and students, but the situation in Bendigo proves the Minister is wrong.

“With this clear evidence that these cuts are affecting staff and students, Mr Baillieu must rethink this short-sighted decision.”

VCAL was started by the former Labor Government in 2002, and last year was undertaken by around 20,000 students at over 400 schools, TAFEs and adult learning centres.

Almost 9000 Victorians have signed VCAL petitions asking the Baillieu Government to reinstate the funding.