“[This is] is the biggest investment in education in school bilding the state has ever seen, it is quite extraordinary,” said Education Minister and Deputy Premier James Merlino.
Mr Merlino said while there would still annual funding for non-government schools, Tuesday’s enormous investment announcement was about creating a level playing field between independent, Catholic and public schools.
Mr Merlino said the approach in Beaumaris showed how the government would approach the allocation of funding.
“We made a significant investment for a brand new school in Beaumaris – Beaumaris Secondary – and before that parents felt that their only choice was to go down the private [school] path,” he said.
“We work in partnership with Catholic and independent schools but it’s about giving parents a choice wherever they live across metropolitan Melbourne, regional Victoria – a choice of a quality public education.”
Mr Merlino said the government’s 2014 commitment to allocated yearly funding to low fee Catholic independent schools would continue.
The announcement came after The Age revealed on Tuesday that Victoria’s vocational high school certificate will be abolished and merged with the VCE, in a move aimed at dispelling the persistent stigma that it is solely for non-academic children.
The Victorian Certificate of Applied Learning – the VCE alternative taken by more than 25,000 senior secondary school students last year – will begin to be phased out as a standalone qualification in 2023 and will be scrapped by 2025.
A review of vocational and applied learning pathways in secondary schools found VCAL had an image problem.Credit:Jim Rice
Instead, industry-focused subjects will be included within the VCE, with students given more freedom to combine academic and vocational pathways.
It means students will no longer have to choose between VCE and VCAL before beginning year 11.
The overhaul of year 11 and 12 studies will cost $38 million – which will be included in Tuesday’s state budget – with some of the funding to go to hiring new “jobs, skills and pathways co-ordinators” within government schools.
More to come.
