VCAL Coordination: AEU council resolution
The following resolution was passed unanimously by AEU joint primary and secondary council on September 2.
That the AEU Joint Primary and Secondary Council condemns the Baillieu Government for its decision to abandon some of our most vulnerable students by cutting funding to VCAL coordination in secondary and special schools.
This cut to school budgets will have a significant impact on schools, particularly those in regional and rural Victoria, with many considering hard decisions to cut back or discontinue their VCAL program. Council notes that VCAL assists many students to find a pathway to further study or training in many vocational areas and it provides relevant and engaging programs for students, resulting in higher retention rates.
The Joint Primary and Secondary Council condemns the Government for back flipping on yet another promise that the $481M budget cuts in education would not affect frontline services in schools. The AEU rejects comments made by the Premier, the Minister for Education and the Minister for Higher Education and Skills and Minister responsible for the Teaching Profession, that these cuts will not affect VCAL programs in schools and that the co-ordination funding was originally provided to establish the program and is consequently no longer required.
Council notes that in documents distributed to schools participating in the new VCAL program in 2003 that:
- The funding allocated included a planning and development component; a Co-ordinator allocation based on student enrolment; and a CRT allocation for the purposes of professional development and planning. The components which were supposedly for development of the new program have been removed from the SRP in previous years.
- The coordination funding was in fact designed to enable schools to continue to develop local partnerships with organisations for the delivery of education, training, students work placements and support services as required to meet the needs of the school's VCAL program and the needs of enrolled VCAL students.
The AEU Joint Primary and Secondary Council believes that the Baillieu Government is not committed to providing a breadth of curriculum that meets the needs of all students and the cuts to VCAL co-ordination funding will result in students most in need of support being further disadvantaged.
The AEU council determines that the following campaign activities will be undertaken to highlight the impact of the VCAL cuts and pressure the Government to reverse their decision on this issue:
- Writing an open letter to the Premier signed by principals in secondary and special schools objecting to the VCAL cuts;
- Writing to all AEU principal class members in secondary and special schools seeking:
- Information on the level of cuts in individual schools and the likely impact of these cuts on VCAL programs, other programs within the school and staffing
- Their commitment to signing the open letter to the Premier.
- Writing to school councils in secondary and special schools to seek their support and request them to write to the Premier; Minister for Education; and the Minister for Higher Education and Skills and Minister responsible for the Teaching Profession, raising their concerns;
- Calling on AEU sub-branches in all schools to pass resolutions condemning the cuts, and to write to the Ministers and Premier detailing the impact on their students and calling for the funding to be restored;
- Highlighting the impact of the VCAL cuts on school communities, through AEU publications;
- Campaigning in local communities with the support of individual schools and principals in the local media;
- Making representations to the ministers about the impact of cuts on schools and students.
