ENCOURAGING students to finish secondary school and aim for further studies is a challenge facing regional Victoria, a community forum in Wodonga heard yesterday.
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Regional Policy Advisory Committee member Val Lang said its research showed a significant difference between the retention rates of country and city students.
“In Melbourne you would expect to have 90 per cent completion of VCE and in the country 70 per cent, which is a large gap,” she said.
Committee chairman Ian McClelland said the number of students who went on to university dropped off considerably in the country.
“How can we start to get students in regional Victoria to have a greater aspiration to go on to tertiary education?”
Mr McClelland said schools advised students on tertiary options in years 10 and 11, but this might need a review.
“The research we’ve found has noted that children, a lot of children, make up their mind a lot earlier than that.”
Mr McClelland said the committee helped the government take into account regional issues when drafting legislation.
“There are lots of issues that affect city people differently to country people and they’re based around distance, equity, social, education,” he said.
