FRUSTRATED: Jake Andison hopes the budget will help his school obtain modern technology for his metalwork. Photo: Kate Healy.
BALLARAT Secondary College east campus students are being forced to study in outdated buildings and work with antiquated equipment due to a lack of government funding, principal Paul Rose said yesterday.
Calling on the state government to continue to refurbish the east campus, Mr Rose said the school was unable to upgrade its curriculum because of the 1950s infrastructure.
“Lot of things have changed and education has moved forward,” Mr Rose said.
“But the classrooms have been designed for a style of education that we no longer use.”
He said the campus had received funding from 2007 to 2010 from the previous state government under their “Building Futures” funding program.
That money helped the school complete its first stage of refurbishment which included general-purpose classrooms, the administration building and the school library.
However, Mr Rose said the money for the second stage of building never arrived and the school is now left with half the classrooms and equipment dating back to the 1950s.
“We now face a situation where technical subjects, music, graphic and woodwork continue to occur in an antiquated building designed in 1957,” he said.
“There is asbestos in (parts of) the building.
“It is blocked to staff and students ... but (having asbestos) is never good.”
Mr Rose said the school, its staff and students were working very hard and had made great improvements in literacy and numeracy. But they deserved the best, like other students in the state.
East campus principal Rick Elliss said students had to work twice as hard to catch up with their contemporaries because of the building and tools.
Year 10 Design and Technology metalwork student Jake Andison who wants to become a builder or an engineer when he finishes school in two years, said he was frustrated at not having the latest technology.
“The teachers are a great help,” Jake said. “But not having the right equipment can be frustrating.”
A spokesman for the Minister for Higher Education and Skills said the government would not comment on what will and won’t be in the budget.
“The government would love to be in a position where it can upgrade the many hundreds of schools that are in need as a matter of the highest priority,” the spokesman said. “The reality, however, is that it will take some time to work through the extensive backlog.”
