CMY at hearing for Inquiry into the state education system in Victoria
On 9 May 2024, CMY attended a public hearing before the Legislative Council Legal and Social Issues Committee (the Committee) regarding the ‘Inquiry into the state education system in Victoria’. Soo-Lin Quek, Executive Manager of Policy, Sector & Business Development, and Richard Filer, Team Leader of MY Education, represented CMY and provided further information about our submission to the inquiry.
The parliamentary members present at the hearing were particularly interested in CMY’s work within the Out-of-School-Hours-Learning Support Program (OSHLSP) sector. The members were supportive of this work and interested in how these programs supported integration, social skills, wellbeing and connection within the community.
CMY highlighted how learning support programs have a “very unseen, untapped potential for building stronger social cohesion in local communities” given the diversity of volunteers, students and families involved in the program. CMY asked the members of the Committee for further financial support to sustain the learning support program sector.
“Education of multicultural people, it is the cornerstone of their ability to integrate and settle well into Australia.” – Soo-Lin Quek
“We know that all students and all staff and all families learn best when their values are seen as strengths for their learning. What we recognise is that for some students there are barriers to their values being recognised as a strength, so what are those barriers and how do we lower them, because it is going to benefit us all.” – Richard Filer
The members were also interested in data collection as this was a key term of reference in the Inquiry, and CMY emphasised the need for consistent collection of data across government and the need to provide greater training and support to schools to collect accurate data.
You can find out more about the work we are doing to improve educational outcomes for Victorian students from migrant and refugee backgrounds here. You can read further about our recommendations to the Inquiry in our submission, especially in relation to:
a. better support for EAL learning,
b. refugee education support programs (RESP), and
c. anti-racism within schools.
The full transcript of the hearing will be available here shortly.