By BRIDGET COOK
A CRANBOURNE North education provider is at full capacity and struggling to keep up with the demand for alternative education in the area.
Merinda Park Learning and Community Centre (MPLCC) chief executive Jan Gilchrist this week spoke out about a range of issues facing her centre.
Ms Gilchrist said trying to keep up with the demand for their VCAL courses and English classes was becoming increasingly harder.
“We have a very cramped room that we have to operate out of,” she said.
“We are operating at 100 per cent capacity every day and have to try and work our classes around each other.”
Ms Gilchrist said MPLCC was only one of two registered training organisations in Casey, which was not enough to keep up with the number of students that don’t fit into the traditional education system.
“There is a huge demand in Casey for VCAL offered outside main stream school,” she said.
“It gives those who don’t quite fit into or like traditional school, the opportunity to still finish their education.
“We also have a lot more work cut out for us with each individual student than in a mainstream classroom.”
Ms Gilchrist said with just a small classroom to work out of, they were finding it harder to keep up with the demand.
“We are finding it more and more difficult to place students into VCAL,” she said.
“We are limited by space and resources to keep up with the demand.
“We keep our waiting list down as much as possible by being quite brutal with those who play up or are not interested.
“If they muck up with us then they are out, which opens up an opportunity for another student who wants to be here.
“We don’t want to have to turn students away or deprive them of an education when they come to us, so that’s why we are strict when it comes to ensuring the students who are here really want to be here.”
Ms Gilchrist said funding was needed in this area to ensure everyone had the right to an education.
“We really need more classrooms, but as always funding is an issue,” she said.
“Our local MPs and council have been great and are aware of the issues we face, but it just comes down to money not be readily available. That’s what we ideally need.”
