Bega TAFE teachers and students are concerned about the proposed fee hike.

Teachers go in to bat for students over TAFE fees

By David Grainger

Teachers and students at Bega TAFE attended a stopwork meeting on November 6 to protest proposed fee increases for 2008.

Students were told the stopwork meeting was for the benefit of future students who would be impacted by the 9 per cent fee increases. They were upset at the impact it would have on them. One student said it meant she would be unable to study in future. Horticulture student Janelle Phillips explained she already struggled to attend TAFE as her education travel supplement of only $64 per fortnight falls short by about $15 of the true cost of travel -- another fee would make it impossible for her to continue next year.

Computer studies student Cheryl Kemp explained she was doing a range of courses to help her break out of her benefit dependency. With family illnesses that incur hefty pharmaceutical expenses, and a large family to care for, Cheryl said she just would not have the money to attend next year and establish employment that would allow her to work from home while still managing her own illness and other family responsibilities.

The Liberal proposal is to offer $2.1 billion to the Australian Technical Colleges which might produce 10,000 trades trained people by 2010 -- well short of the required number. If that $2.1 billion went into TAFE instead it would make an enormous difference. This would remove the need for fee increases -- and certainly make technical education universally available -- not just to those who already have the financial capacity to pay fees. The Greens propose that $975 million is required annually to boost TAFE to enable them to meet this skill shortage. This will also allow the building of sustainability skills into all courses.

Stopwork meetings have also been held at Wollongong, Cooma, Ultimo, Griffith, Nirimba, Moruya, Ulladulla and Nowra.

David Grainger teaches at Bega TAFE

Hold the Howard Government accountable on TAFE

For further information

November 2007 contents