Telling beneficiaries to study is no use if classrooms are full
If the government wants to follow the recommendations of the Welfare Working Group it needs to provide opportunities for would be students to enter tertiary education. That is the view of TEU national president, Sandra Grey.
“There is no point telling young beneficiaries that they should be in study if there are no spaces available for those young people,” Dr Grey.
“The government has currently capped the number of students that our polytechnics and tertiary institutions can teach. That means thousands of students are already missing out on places.”
“If tertiary institutions are so full of students that they are turning them away, as many have been for the last two years, you can’t then blame would-be-students for being on a benefit. They have done exactly what the government asked of them. It is the government’s cuts to tertiary education funding and cap on the number of funded students that is at fault.”
“The government has a duty to young students who want to study their way out this this recession. That means providing spaces, tutors and resources,” says Dr Grey.
we are also having students choose to stay on a benefit because due to their age and their parents income, they will recieve little money, in one case only $37, on the student allowance but will get more on the unemployment benefit. Essentially there is a group of people that the govenrment will give more money to them to sit around "doing nothing" and less if they are motivated into educating themselves and upskilling…..where is the sense in this????