In short:
The Department of Education is investigating irregularities in enrolment and staff numbers at Southern Cross Distance Education in Ballina.
Parents and educators say they were taken by surprise by cuts that will affect around 40 full and part-time teachers.
What’s next?
The National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Principals Association is working to ensure Indigenous teachers and students are not disadvantaged.
Teachers will be transferred and learning hubs closed as the Department of Education investigates “serious irregularities” in enrolment and staff numbers at a distance education school based at Ballina on the NSW North Coast.
An audit of Southern Cross School of Distance Education found it was overstaffed, resulting in 17.8 full-time equivalent teaching positions being transferred to other schools.
That equates to about 40 people, a quarter of its part-time and full-time teaching staff.
Almost nine full-time equivalent administration positions will be transferred and 6.8 full-time equivalent temporary teaching contracts have also ended.
The Minister for Education and Early Learning, Prue Car, said it was a “regrettable situation” and a department investigation was underway into the circumstances.
The Member for Ballina Tamara Smith, who used to teach at the school, said the situation was “happening really without any warning”.
“I won’t sugar coat it, former principals have not done their job [regarding staff-student ratios] and what we are seeing now it the impact of that,” she said.
“Normally in schools you will see one or two nominated transfers, what we have here is over 40 teachers.”
Tweed Heads mother of five Sharyn Logan said her twin boys Jack and Robbie were sinking under a weight of racism and ignorance in the mainstream school system.
The Bundjalung boys were switched to a program run by the Southern Cross School of Distance Education which saw teachers come to their house and allowed to do school work online or in small classes at an education hub in Tweed Heads.
“The school was a port in the storm for my kids,” Mrs Logan said.
Mrs Logan said standard staff-student ratios were not a helpful metric in distance education.
“You inherent kids who have low engagement or poor return rate of work, so who do you consider enrolled?” she said.
Importance of education
Mrs Logan said the cuts failed to recognise the big picture of educational outcomes for students, particularly the Indigenous children who make up about 30 per cent of the school’s student cohort of about 600 kids.
“They’ve gutted Aboriginal education at a time when the gap is actually widening in most of those educational outcome areas,” Mrs Logan said.
Jack and Robbie are now studying science at university after the school helped them with their applications for early entry.
Russell Trebilcock said his 14-year-old foster son suffered foetal alcohol spectrum disorder, contributing to behaviour that saw him expelled from mainstream school.
Mr Trebilcock said his son was disengaged from education for months until he began to bond with a teacher making home visits from Southern Cross School of Distance Education.
He said he was frustrated the tentative steps back into his son’s schooling had now ended due to home visits being discontinued and the education hub at Lismore closed.
He said the school proposed his son attend the hub at Ballina, but his son refused to go into the unfamiliar environment.
“We were feeling optimistic and grateful that we had found a person and a model that was starting to give us a chance to see Steven get an education of some sort, and that has just all been put in jeopardy,” he said.
Vulnerable kids
National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Principals Association president Dyonne Anderson said the most vulnerable students would suffer if the cuts were carried out.
Ms Anderson said parents, teachers and students were in the dark about their options.
“I don’t know why this is occurring but it’s certainly one that needs to be explained to community, because community members are very concerned about it,” she said.
In a statement, the minister said students’ education and wellbeing was her department’s top priority, and each student would receive individual attention to support their continued education.
She said the review of operations at Southern Cross Distance Education was separate to a state-wide review of the education model currently being done by the Department of Education.
The New South Wales Teachers Federation said it was working to minimise the impact of the changes to staff and students.
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Source Y.R -#Ballina #Southern #Cross #School #Distance #Education #teachers #transferred #audit #finds #overstaffing
2024-08-13 06:05:23