Victoria's Education Minister has ordered a sweeping review of the state's oldest deaf school amid concerns it is discouraging students from completing the VCE.
Parents have accused the Victorian College for the Deaf of ignoring children's needs and employing staff who can’t properly communicate with deaf students.
“Parent concern, staff dissatisfaction and student unhappiness have grown to acute levels over the last two years,” they recently wrote in a letter to Education Minister James Merlino.
Mr Merlino said the Education Department’s review would examine the college, its teaching practices and ways of improving outcomes for students. The deaf community will be able to provide feedback.
“These are serious matters and it is important we consider them closely,” Mr Merlino said.
“Students who are deaf or hard of hearing have the right to every educational opportunity non-deaf students have and we will make sure that is the case.”
Parents allege that completing the VCE is “actively discouraged”, with not a single student set to graduate with the high school certificate this year.
“Without access to VCE, no student at VCD will have the opportunity to attend university. Their options have been radically restricted. VCD students no longer have the same educational opportunities as their hearing peers,” the letter says.
They also claim that an increasing number of staff at the school don’t use Auslan or only have limited sign language, making it difficult for them to communicate with students.
This has led to students with better hearing having to translate staff's instructions into sign language for their classmates.
While the state school is funded as a special school, parents say it has no psychologists, social workers, occupational therapists and limited access to a speech therapist. Music, dance and drama programs are also absent from the St Kilda Road school, they claim.
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