SECONDARY schools in the Wimmera could face an uphill battle maintaining enrollment numbers in coming years, despite a wave of new teenagers about to enter the system.
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A Grattan Institute study has found high schools across the state will need to squeeze in an extra 10,900 students a year between now and 2024.
However, the student-aged populations of four out of five Wimmera council areas are predicted to decline in the next eight years.
Grattan study author Dr Peter Goss said his analysis suggested by 2026 student numbers in Yarriambiack Shire would drop by 22 per cent compared to 2016 levels.
The West Wimmera and Hindmarsh shires will each see 15 per cent declines in school-aged residents, while the Northern Grampians Shire is facing a drop of 10 per cent. In the Horsham Rural City municipality, this age group is predicted to remain steady.
“The challenge for the rest of the Wimmera... is to make sure there is still a school where students need it, to keep morale up in the face of shrinking enrollments, and ensure the vital role schools play in community can be sustained,” Dr Goss said.
Holy Trinity Lutheran College principal Daniel Weller said enrollments were growing steadily, and this was partly due to more students coming in from surrounding rural areas.
“We’re finding (students coming from) the areas out towards Warracknabeal and Nhill, and we have buses that run from those two places. We have roughly 60 or 70 students coming in from both of those runs that we provide a service to,” he said.
Mr Weller said another factor presented itself once students reached senior school.
“For those who do go to boarding school at Ballarat or look at a different pathway, that’s a point where we note some students leave the school. We do note the 30-odd students through our middle school would be down to the 20s after year nine,” he said.
Murtoa College appears to have found a solution which essentially involves providing a reciprocal service to the likes of Holy Trinity.
Principal Tony Goodwin said the college would maintain enrollments at its current level of about 260 secondary students.
“The reason we’re able to maintain them is that we actually bring about 50 to 70 students out of Horsham every day,” he said.
“(They come) because they want the luxury of a small school with no added costs, so they choose our school as an alternative. Our cohorts in the secondary area are 30 students in each year level. We are trying to protect the education for students in this area by attracting a supplement number in Horsham.”
Mr Goodwin said the school paid to run buses to Horsham to help get these students to campus.
Dr Goss said governments had good reason to ensure schools outside of population growth areas were properly funded.
“Another recent analysis looked at the effectiveness of small secondary schools, and found it's actually pretty high,” he said.
“Students make on average at least as much learning progress as in larger secondary schools. There’s no reason results can't be at least as good, but we do still need to make sure regional areas can get teachers to provide the best all round education.”
Alexander Darling
Alexander has been a member of the Wimmera Mail-Times' editorial team since December 2018, covering politics, business and property among other rounds. He is a passionate St.Kilda and rock and roll fan, and has previously worked as a radio reporter in Port Macquarie and Gosford, NSW.
Alexander has been a member of the Wimmera Mail-Times' editorial team since December 2018, covering politics, business and property among other rounds. He is a passionate St.Kilda and rock and roll fan, and has previously worked as a radio reporter in Port Macquarie and Gosford, NSW.
