REGIONAL TAFES DISADVANTAGED
Member for Western Victoria Region, Bev McArthur used a Constituency Question in Parliament to ask the Minister for Higher Education about the cutting of courses at regional TAFEs.
Current fashion design students at the Gordon Institute in Geelong have been informed that the Diploma of Fashion Design and Fashion Merchandising has been cut, ending 117 years of textile studies at the Gordon Institute. This is despite the Labor Government suggesting that “all students will have access to the same quality education, regardless of their background or circumstance” (from "About the Education State" - Department of Education and Training Website).
Bev McArthur said “Students must undertake alternative study at the Kangan Institute in Richmond which would require some students to commute more than four hours daily, an unviable option for those from regional towns such as Bannockburn and Anglesea, resulting in many students already abandoning their studies altogether.”
“If this government is committed to providing equitable education opportunities for all Victorians, regardless of their address, students from regional and rural Victoria should have the same educational opportunities as their metropolitan counterparts.”
Mrs McArthur asked the Minister “why she is allowing TAFE courses, in an existence for 117 years to be cut at the Gordon Institute, disadvantaging regional and rural students, and why her own local constituents have been told to only deal with her ministerial office and not her electorate office?”
ENDS
27 November 2019