From the Anzac spirit forged on the beaches of Gallipoli that day, to conflicts and peacekeeping missions across the world, our veterans and current service men and women have made us immensely proud.
Whether it be Euroa’s three Victoria Cross recipients, the inspirational story of Weary Dunlop, our several proud RSL groups, or the thousands of personnel who have and continue to call Puckapunyal home, this is a region with a proud connection to our military and its history.
I encourage everyone to attend a dawn service or ceremony in your community and take the time to respectfully thank and acknowledge all those who have served our nation and made our country the best place in the world to live.
Let us continue to honour the values that were represented by the original Anzacs — loyalty, selflessness, service and courage.
May we never forget or diminish the sacrifice that these individuals made to ensure our children today live safely and with freedom.
Lest we forget.
Annabelle Cleeland
State Member for Euroa
Sad state of school funding
I am writing this regarding the atrocious system that the Australian Government has put on public schools.
Our school, Benalla P-12, is struggling to find teachers for critical subjects such as maths and science for all year levels. This, in turn, has put a lot of strain on the few full-time teachers we do have.
Some classes haven’t had a permanent teacher in over two years, causing an improper education going into our senior years, which was already affected by COVID-19.
For example, some of my peers and I are in specialist classes but have not learnt the basic understanding of these subjects, putting some students behind. This has the effect of making it even harder for a teacher to teach those subjects.
This shows how flawed the education system is and the hardship my government school goes through.
But that is without hearing how our schools is funded.
Sixty-four per cent of Aussie students go to public schools, which have an annual fund of $11.2 billion.
This seems like a lot of money until you see that Catholic schools, with 19.7 per cent of students, and independent schools, with 16.3 per cent, get $17.8 billion in funding from the government.
This is outrageous because if you add the average cost of a private school, around $12,000 annually for 1.47 million students, this nearly doubles how much money private schools accumulate each year to $35 billion.
Non-government schools are government-funded and charge fees, while public schools get only $11 billion.
One-third of the money that goes into education each year goes to 64 per cent of students, who can’t afford to go to private schools.
As a country, we pride ourselves on fairness. But how is this fair?
I want this to be known and for something to be done about it.
If I have to protest for the rest of my schooling years, and after, I will, so we can get closer to equality in our schooling system public or private.
I understand that parents pay a lot of money for their child’s education but why should the government give more money to private schools rather than to schools whose families can barely pay for food on the table?
I am hoping that this is reviewed and to get a message back.
I’m hoping that we can get this story published and read because I and a lot of fellow students feel really strongly about this.
If you have read this thank you.
I look forward to hearing a response
All statistics were found at https://www.vic.gov.au/education
Robert Cooper
Year 10 student at Benalla P-12 College
