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Swan Hill’s Year 12 students have received a major boost this year thanks to today’s announcement of grants from the Victorian Government’s $5 million Local Solutions Year 12 Retention Fund says Member for Swan Hill, Peter Walsh.
“Swan Hill Specialist School, along with its partners the Victorian College of Koorie Education and MacKillop College, has received $90,000 to address employability skills via developing learning opportunities whilst the Swan Hill College will use its grant of $50,000 to further develop its Flexible Learning Option Program,” Mr Walsh said.
“These grants have been awarded to the schools as a result of their excellent proposals for retaining students through to Year 12.
“It is well documented that students from regional schools are more likely to leave school before completing Year 12 than their metropolitan counterparts, however, programs such as these being developed in Swan Hill will go a long way to addressing this imbalance,” Mr Walsh said.
Minister for Education Martin Dixon said while the number of metropolitan students finishing school was going up, the government was committed to ensuring the same opportunities were available to rural and regional students.
“We know when a student completes school, the likelihood of them going on to achieve, succeed and become a skilled and valued contributor to society dramatically increases,” Mr Dixon said.
“Almost nine out of 10 metropolitan students are finishing school, but nearly a third of country students are leaving school early, and these new grants are a step toward addressing this issue.”
The Local Solutions Year 12 Retention Fund was created upon advice from the Rural Education Reference Group; a cross-sectoral group established by Minister Dixon to advise the government on initiatives specifically designed to support rural and regional schools.
“I am really keen to see the success of these retention programs as they are rolled out across Victoria,” Mr Dixon said.
“It is this government’s belief that schools are the ones best placed to determine what measures will be most effective for their students and I think the community will agree as graduating students become active members of the community and valuable contributors to the local economy.”