THE teachers federation will meet with TAFE executives this week amid fears 22 jobs are to be cut from support services across New England campuses.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
In documents seen by The Leader, TAFE New England (TNE) appears ready to “delete” jobs from its wraparound services, such as counsellors, disability services and Aboriginal services.
A number of literacy and numeracy teaching positions are also proposed to go according to the document.
NSW Teachers Federation (NSWTF) assistant general secretary Maxine Sharkey said the positions are the ones which support the most vulnerable.
“(If this goes ahead) a lot of people with disabilities just won’t enrol in TAFE,” Ms Sharkey said.
Teachers federation representative and TAFE organiser Kathy Nicholson said the remaining one-and-a-half disability teaching consultants would be assisted by support officers with no teaching background.
“How can someone with a certificate VI in disability work and no educational background advise a teacher about a disabled student’s needs?” Ms Nicholson said.
The federation said the TNE justification for cutting the disability support services was flawed.
“The institute is saying the figures from 2015 don’t support the need,” Ms Sharkey said.
“TAFE New England said it now had to run itself like a business – well a good business manager doesn’t make a decision based solely on what happened last year.”
Under the proposal, the TNE campuses at Inverell, Glen Innes and Tenterfield would be left without an Aboriginal support services position, despite their large Aboriginal population.
The proposed cuts are in response to the NSW government’s Smart and Skilled reforms, which forces TAFE to compete for funding and students with up to 400 private colleges.
Ms Sharkey said while many TAFEs were doing it tough, the TNE approach to support services was “heavy handed”.
“Some of this is only happening here, not in the rest of the state,” she said.
“Why is it good enough for people in Sydney or the Riverina or the North Coast to have specialist support, but it’s not good enough for people in New England?”
The federation is expected to meet with TAFE this week.