THE NUMBER PLATE SAYS "VICTORIA THE EDUCATION STATE"

Various people have been blamed for the parlous state of education in the state of Victoria.

Who are actually to blame are a few generations of politicians.

Education in Australia has generally been somewhat on the slides for many years, so what is going on?

Part of the blame lies with the system of government and control - an uneducated population don't know enough to challenge the system, so by keeping state schools underfunded and keeping private schools overfunded, we breed those with a belief that they are born to rule. They themselves are taught to believe that they know best, not just in education, but in everything else.

The outcome of course is teams of politicians who are 'born to rule".

What happens then is that those education institutions which are deemed unnecessary such as TAFE colleges and schools which cater for those who do not want to be professional people like doctors or lawyers or architects or dentists - or even teachers - are underfunded and forced to close, leaving hundreds if not thousands of those who want different types of education with no available institutions and unemployed or underemployed teachers.

Then these same governments want to make more money out of property and other money-raising ventures and decide to ensure that more of the population are able to live closer to the cities by subdividing properties and making greater demand of schools which have been closed and the properties they were on very often sold - to further developers.

In the Melbourne suburb of Preston a primary school was closed about 8 years ago and now with development of medium density housing all over the suburb with attendant huge population increases, a girls high school was closed a few years ago and stands empty at the moment, with population increases all the time with all the new developments.

One doesn't have to be a genius to see that this is an exercise in futility and all governments are to blame for creating this situation.

VICTORIA THE EDUCATION STATE it is not and never will be!