By Ewen McRae
A Melton Secondary College student claims she is being denied opportunities, after the school discontinued a subject she had spent this year preparing for.
Year 11 student Dominique-Dee Jones is studying the year 12 units of Global Politics, but chose to take the subject as a non-scored student on the basis that she would study it again as a scored student in 2020.
She said she was recently told that the school will not be offering the class on-site next year, because of a lack of interest in the subject.
“It’s gut-wrenching,” she said. “I was on the verge of tears when I found out, because I’m very invested in school … I’m part of so many groups in the school and on the school council, and I feel like I represent the school well.
“I respect the school, and I feel like that respect hasn’t been returned to me.”
Ms Jones said the school offered her the chance to complete the subject next year through Virtual School Victoria (VSV), an online course option, but she said that did not appeal to her.
“If this was any other subject I would have doubled down and found something else, but politics is something I picked up at the start of the year and I was very excited for,” she said
“This whole year I’ve loved it, and it’s changed the pathway that I want to take in my career and my life, that’s how influential this has been.
“And this is in part because of my teacher, so to do VSV where you don’t get that one-on-one time … it’s going to impact on my learning.”
College principal David Reynolds said VSV was a successful way of broadening the curriculum at schools.
“There are many schools around the state who access distance education to supplement the breadth of their VCE curriculum,” Mr Reynolds said.
“The students are still supported by the school, but access the curriculum online … this is a very successful pathway to take. We’ll be providing a teacher from the college to work in a mentor role with the students.”
