Thursday, 17 August 2023

Inclusive education

Wendy LOVELL (Northern Victoria) (17:42): (416) My adjournment matter is directed to the Minister for Education. It concerns the cruel and heartless cuts made to the visiting teacher service by the Andrews Labor government. The action that I seek is for the minister to stop her callous attack on the visiting teacher service by reversing her decision to make redundant 85 teachers from the visiting teacher service and reinstating the teachers to the service immediately.

In commencing my contribution I thought I would inform the chamber of the role of the teachers from the visiting teacher service, as taken from the Andrews government’s very own schools.vic.gov.au website. In the government’s own words:

Visiting teachers are specialist teachers with expertise and experience in specific disabilities and impairments. They give schools and teachers guidance in supporting engagement and participation of students with disabilities and additional needs.

What a farcical piece of spin from a government and a minister who, with a stroke of her pen, recently sacked 85 of these same wonderful teachers from the visiting teacher service. No mention of that, but then Victorians should be familiar with the form of the Labor government when they say one thing and do the complete opposite.

These teachers are highly trained professionals – teachers of the deaf require masters degrees – working with around 3500 Victorian students who are blind or have low vision, are deaf or hard of hearing or are both deaf and blind. Visiting teachers provide essential support to the regular teacher who has a child with disabilities in their classroom. They are instrumental in helping students with disabilities to engage in learning and develop skills that prepare them for their future careers.

The decision to cut 85 teachers from the service will result in just 32 teachers being left to service the educational needs of Victoria’s 3500 students with disabilities, an unacceptable and of course unsustainable scenario. I am informed that the visiting teachers perform most of their work in rural and regional areas. These are areas where there are less services available to families, which therefore makes this program even more valuable.

The minister’s actions have been slammed by disability advocates and impacted teachers as well as parents of children with special needs, who now fear they will be unable to cope without this vital educational support. Cutting staff from the visiting teacher service directly impacts our most vulnerable students, and I urge the minister to immediately reverse this senseless and cruel decision and reinstate these vital teachers to the visiting teacher service.