College closed

By Kath Gannaway
WORAWA Aboriginal College in Healesville has been forced to send students home after the Victorian Registration and Qualification Authority (VRQA) gave notice last week it was suspending the school’s registration.
VRQA director Lynn Glover confirmed with the Mail on Monday that the registration would be suspended from Monday 10 December following an unsatisfactory review of the college’s operations.
Ms Glover said the review had revealed serious problems with the running of the college.
While she would not comment on reports in Melbourne media over the weekend which blamed ‘a bitter power struggle by competing factions on the school council’ for the problems, she said the issues were significant.
“These problems make it difficult to determine who has responsibility for issues that arise in the course of the day-to-day management of the college,” she said.
One of those issues she said was that there was no principal of the college.
She said the college had also failed to meet the necessary minimum standards for registration as a school in Victoria.
Ms Glover said the school had been notified in October of the looming suspension and was given until 7 November to demonstrate it was able to comply on a number of matters.
She said after considering a number of submissions she had concluded that the key underlying governance issues had not been rectified.
“As a result it is in the best interests of the students that it be suspended,” she said.
The college which was founded by Aboriginal woman Hillas Maris in 1983 currently provides indigenous-based education for Aboriginal students from Victoria and interstate, including the Northern Territory.
A spokesman for the college confirmed on Monday that 10 students had returned home and the remaining 28 would be transferred to other schools until the college could reopen.
He said while the suspension had been a blow to students and staff, the students had been briefed on the situation.
“To be quite clear, this is a temporary suspension. The school has not been closed down,” he said.
He declined to comment on the nature of the problems which have led to the suspension.
“Until the various matters that were highlighted in the review are dealt with, and we believe they will be dealt with, the plans are that the college will remain closed and re-open not at the beginning of 2007 but certainly at some stage next year.”
In the meantime, he said provision had been made for all the students and conceded it would have an impact especially on some students who would not have access to appropriate or good education options where they live.
While unable to comment either on the future of the 15 to 20 full and part-time staff members, he did say they were disappointed with the decision and particularly with the timing.
“We are in the process of hiring a principal with applications being sought at the moment with a view to reopening next year,” the spokesman said.