Cuts to one-on-one specialist support for students with disabilities and illnesses have been called "cruel" by a trio of politicians.
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Bendigo school children, like others around the state, are presenting with disabilities in greater numbers than before the pandemic, yet services are being reduced, they say.
Shadow education minister Matt Bach toured schools in Bendigo and Castlemaine recently with upper house Coalition MPs Gaelle Broad and Wendy Lovell, who represent Northern Victoria Region.
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The trio wanted to "highlight cruel state government cuts" to a program providing one-on-one specialist support to students with disabilities and illnesses.
At Bendigo Senior Secondary College they heard about rising levels of anxiety and "complexity" students were experiencing and that "far more children are presenting with various disabilities now", something being seen statewide
That made the sacking of 85 of 117 teachers in the Visiting Teacher Service, which caters particularly for hearing and vision impaired students so shocking, they said.
"I don't think anybody thought when they went to the election last November that they were voting for cuts to teachers who help kids with disabilities," Dr Bach said.
"Labor likes to talk a big game on its support for education and certainly its support for vulnerable Victorians, which is, I suppose, one of the reasons why these cuts, which are so significant, really stunned us.
"We're calling for them to be reversed and we're going to fight to see if there's any way to keep the 32 remaining teachers on, rather than have them cut too, which is the government's plan."
Public school education in spotlight
The MPs were also talking up a parliamentary inquiry into public school education that is getting underway, and appealed for people to make submissions.
The Nationals-initiated inquiry is tasked with considering trends in student learning outcomes and wellbeing in the state system since the pandemic.
It would also investigate differences between metro and regional students in both attainment and wellbeing, the state of the teaching profession and issue of teacher retention, they said, with the latter critical given that at the start of the school year there were 1000 teaching vacancies in the system, according to Ms Broad.
The Bendigo-based MP described the issues as "of great importance" to "the thousands of people living in northern Victoria, whether they personally have children of school age or not".
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"The state of the Victorian education system affects everyone," she said.
"We're really encouraging parents, teachers and principals to contribute their thoughts."
Submissions to the Legislative Council's Legal and Social Issues Committee inquiry into the state education system can be made via the committee's website until October 13.
The Department of Education did not respond to a request for comment on the cutting of the Visiting Teacher Service by deadline.
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