Former Greens candidate for Northern Tablelands Mercurius Goldstein from Glen Innes writes about a change to TAFE that wasn’t mooted during the recent election campaigning.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
The new NSW parliament hasn’t even sat yet, but already we see nasty surprises that voters weren’t told about before the election.
Among these is the decision to move TAFE out of the Education Department and into the Industry portfolio.
This seemingly bureaucratic change conceals a bitter truth about where TAFE and our taxpayer dollars are headed – straight into the pockets of for-profit private colleges.
According to this Baird government, TAFE is not part of “education”. This is despite TAFE providing “second-chance” education for thousands of students who face difficulties at regular schools, remedial literacy and numeracy programs to help young people gain entry to employment, and a range of courses to help adult workers change career tracks or engage with new skills.
Premier Mike Baird has decided to dismiss TAFE’s educational know-how and heritage, in favour of increased fees, fewer face-to-face courses and lining the pockets of private for-profit colleges with taxpayer money.
Is this really what the people of NSW voted for?
The only silver lining to this cloud is that there will now be more Greens in the lower house to take up the role as guardians of the educational values of TAFE, to ensure this fine institution is not lost forever to the people of NSW.
