IF only Inverell residents could take at face value the assurances of Peter Heilbuth that it will be 'business as usual' for New England TAFE next year ('TAFE ready for 2015', Inverell Times, Friday, December 12).
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The fee increases starting January 1 are documented on the NSW government's own 'Smart and Skilled' website. There, I was shocked to discover that the Diploma of Government course which I completed this year for $750 will next year cost more than $5500.
I have a bridge to sell to anybody who believes this will result in anything other than a fall in enrolments, flowing on to course closures and more local job losses.
Fee reductions and waivers will only apply to Certificate courses for a student's first qualification. But then large increases will apply to extra qualifications, Diploma and Advanced Diploma courses.
How can we expect to 'close the gap' for young people and Aboriginal students when higher qualifications will now cost thousands of dollars?
Students will be starting out in the workforce deep in debt - and unlike university HECS loans, the new TAFE 'Fee Help' loans will attract compounding interest and receive no government subsidy.
It represents the worst kind of educational discrimination for TAFE students to be put on less favourable financial terms than university students.
The state election in March will be the last chance for NSW voters to stop their TAFE system going the way of Victoria's, where TAFE has crashed to 27 per cent of the training market and the Victorian government is now handing out millions of taxpayer dollars to for-profit "edu-businesses".
I urge Inverell residents to keep TAFE at the top of their minds when they cast their votes next March, and to show the Baird government that we are too 'smart and skilled' to be fooled by their attempts to disguise cuts, closures and fee hikes behind slick marketing and spin.
Mercurius Goldstein
Greens candidate for Northern Tablelands