Thursday, 9 June 2022

Greater Shepparton Secondary College

Ms LOVELL (Northern Victoria) (1985)

Incorporated pursuant to order of Council of 7 September 2021:

My adjournment matter is directed to the Minister for Education and concerns the decline of enrolments at Greater Shepparton Secondary College.

Action: the action that I seek of the minister is that he investigates the loss of over 500 enrolled students at Greater Shepparton Secondary College since 2018 and detail to the Greater Shepparton community the identified reasons why there has been such a dramatic decline in student enrolments at the school.

• The Andrews Labor government and independent member for Shepparton, Suzanna Sheed, have implemented a public education policy in Greater Shepparton that has completely divided the entire community.

• Under stage 1 of the government’s Shepparton Education Plan, the minister and Ms Sheed closed the four existing public secondary schools to create a single campus super-school to immediately cater for up to 2700 students.

• This decision was implemented despite many concerns being raised by local students, their families, and teachers at the time that the removal of educational choice would be to the detriment of student learning.

• Inexplicitly, Ms Sheed simply refused to meet with angry families to even discuss their concerns or the matter itself.

• In 2018 the My School website revealed the four previous public secondary schools, Wanganui Park Secondary College, Mooroopna Secondary College, McGuire College, and Shepparton High School, had a total student enrolment of 2645 students.

• Since the closure of the four schools to create the one single-campus school, the student enrolment had steadily declined each year to a reported current enrolment of 2135 students.

• Greater Shepparton Secondary College has reportedly lost 31 students since the start of March this year, proving that the lack of choice imposed by the Andrews Labor government and Ms Sheed continues to impact Greater Shepparton families.

• The decline in student numbers directly contradicts the Shepparton Education Plan that predicts student numbers in government at the college would continually grow to reach 3117 by 2026.

• Together with the Greater Shepparton community I am extremely concerned about the number of students who may have been lost to the education system altogether and the government must investigate the loss of over 500 students and publicly report the reasons for the decline.

• The one-school model imposed by the minister and Suzanna Sheed in Greater Shepparton does not suit all students and the community needs reassurance these young people have not been lost to the education system altogether.