O'Farrell must oppose changes to TAFE funding

The NSW Teachers Federation today called upon the NSW Government to oppose changes to the TAFE system that would see funding reduced to TAFE colleges.

Bob Lipscombe, NSW Teachers Federation President said today:

The Federation has called upon all NSW MPs to urge the NSW Premier Barry O'Farrell and Education Minister Adrian Piccoli not to sign up to risky changes being proposed by the Federal Government at CoAG to "reform" the funding of TAFE.

At the forthcoming CoAG meeting, New South Wales will be asked to sign up to “reforms” which will significantly reduce funding to its TAFE colleges. Changes proposed in the new National Partnership to reform the VET system, which was announced in the 2011 Federal Budget include:

• opening all public vocational education and training funds to contest between public and private providers;
• the imposition of competitive neutrality principles upon the TAFE system; and
• significant increases in student fees and charges, as a result of the introduction of an income contingent loan scheme in VET.

These proposals will have dire consequences for the funding of NSW TAFE. Already government spending per hour on public vocational education and training across Australia has fallen by 12 per cent since 2003 and 22 per cent since 1997. In NSW, between 2004 and 2008 the cost of government recurrent expenditure per publicly funded annual hour of vocational education and training fell from $15.15 to $12.54. Since 1998, it fell from $18.09 per hour or by -30.7%.

During the recent NSW state election many MPs across all political parties signed pledges to support the TAFE 5 Point Plan for a Better State which includes: the government must guarantee TAFE funding; ensure that TAFE jobs and courses are not contracted out to the private sector; invest infrastructure for TAFE that ensures a skilled workforce; increase permanent TAFE teaching positions and invest in teacher training, and; ensure that everyone in NSW has affordable access to a TAFE education.

The Federation rejects policies that funding increases to TAFE should be made contingent upon New South Wales making:

• further market driven reforms;
• changes to governance arrangements in the public sector, and;
• Certificate IV courses and above being co-funded “between individuals and governments through an income-contingent loan”.

Competition on price has damaged TAFE and Australia’s economy, leading to skills shortages in the traditional trades, cherry picking of more lucrative courses by private (for profit) providers and significant cost increases for students. TAFE institutes in regional and rural areas will struggle to survive on reduced levels of funding.

The O’Farrell government must ensure that there is additional funding for TAFE in the state budget consistent with Coalition pledges to support the TAFE 5 Point Plan.