ACT cuts college funding

ACT cuts college funding

By Nick Soudakoff

CANBERRA — Secondary colleges in the ACT plan to cut courses and student services, and increase class sizes, because of a $1.8 million funding cut by the ACT government.

Canberra's eight colleges (which teach year 11 and 12 students) will lose the equivalent of 13½ staff members over the next three years. They have already indicated that the courses likely to be cut include accounting, economics, music, social science, tourism and languages, and warned that mainstream courses such as English and maths will have to combine year 11 and 12 students into the same classes.

The colleges have warned that they will no longer be able to provide many support and welfare services, including career counselling, library services, support for students with disabilities and learning difficulties, and crisis support.

Resistance activist Eva Boland, a student at Narrabundah College, commented: "While the federal government is forcing young people back to school by making school attendance a precondition for receiving the youth allowance, the ACT government is cutting funding for secondary education.

"Education minister Bill Stefaniak reckons colleges can absorb the reduction because they are 'flexible' and 'miles out in front' in terms of funding. But governments have been eroding education funding in the ACT for years. This latest round of cuts further undermines the quality and accessibility of our education."

From GLW issue 383