Minister sent to back of class

By Lia Bichel
A LOCAL MP said the Minister of Education’s actions were “unacceptable” after it was announced he would not visit a Narre Warren school until December to discuss VCAL funding cuts.
However, Minister for Education Martin Dixon said he has already visited 200 schools and would visit the Narre Warren South P-12 College on 13 December, as arranged with the principal.
Narre Warren South MP Ms Graley said it was unacceptable that Mr Dixon had not yet visited the school to discuss the $48million funding cuts to the VCAL program across the state. “It is absolutely unacceptable that our schools were not consulted prior to the Baillieu Government ripping out $48 million from the VCAL program, but it is even more unacceptable that the minister has not yet visited Narre Warren South P-12 College,” Ms Graley said.
Narre Warren South P-12 College Assistant Principal Rob Duncan has spoken out about their disappointment with the funding cuts and students from the school’s VCAL program wrote letters voicing their concerns to Ms Graley.
Mr Duncan said the funding cuts were a “short-sighted decision that had a significant impact” on the schools abilities.
Ms Graley also said the minister should apologise for saying the VCAL co-ordination funding had been used by schools for “a lot of cross-subdivision” and suggested that co-ordinators could remain in school but only in unpaid positions and that the co-ordination role could be taken over by teachers and assistant principals.
Ms Graley said that the minister’s comments were offensive and demonstrated a lack of understanding of schools.