Over many years we have received regular reports of overcrowding across Melbourne’s schools (for example here, here and here).
The story is always the same: the explosion in the number of high-rise apartments and fringe houses across Melbourne is dramatically driving up student enrolments, resulting in “jam-packed” public schools.
Forecasts also show that student numbers will continue to surge, thus requiring the construction of dozens of schools, in addition to upgrading existing schools.
For example, the Victorian Auditor General in 2017 claimed that the state needed 50 new schools by 2021 to cater for a projected 90,000 new students. The Auditor General also warned that “school maintenance continues to be underfunded and is at levels below industry standards”.
In a similar vein, Peter Goss, School Education Program Director at the Grattan Institute, projected that Victoria will require 220 new schools in the decade to 2026 merely to keep pace with projected student enrolments:
According to Goss, the situation in Melbourne’s inner-city is most urgent due to the “cost and scarcity of land”, because “Melbourne’s five most central local government areas will each see a 30% to 60% increase in student numbers over the next decade”.
With this background in mind, it is hard to fathom that the Victorian Government is seeking to expand the number of international students at Victoria’s schools, thereby making the overcrowding problems even worse.
That’s right. After it was revealed on Monday that Victorian schools are about to exceed the enrolment cap of 5,750 international students, Victoria’s education minister, James Merlino, signalled that he would seek to have the cap lifted. From The ABC:
Education Minister James Merlino said the limit being reached was “testament to the quality of our schools and the growing strength of Victoria’s students abroad”, and said he had sought urgent advice on how to ensure more students could be enrolled in 2020.
“We intend to grow sustainably into the future. I want to see more schools offering international student places, and more international students coming to Victoria,” Mr Merlino said.
“But we have quickly reached projections, we have exceeded projections for this year, so we will be working closely with schools and looking at how we can grow the number of international students and the number of international places.”
This is crazy stuff from the Victorian Government.
With Victoria’s schools already overcrowded, and enrolment numbers already projected to surge, where is the sense in burdening our schools with thousands more international students? Many state schools are already over enrolled, meaning local children are missing-out on their school of choice.
Moreover, how will the Victorian Government ensure that education standards are maintained? As we have witnessed with Australia’s universities, the influx of international students has led to a reduction in standards as teachers have come under pressure to cater to these students at the expense of locals in order to keep the gravy train rolling.
The Victorian Government is already failing to cater for local school students. Why exacerbate the problem by expanding the number of international students?
