Government axes The Shack

A long-running program that keeps disadvantaged students in school faces the axe.

The School Tutoring Program, co-ordinated by The Shack Youth Service in Kingsford and the Arc student service at the University of New South Wales, has been providing free tutoring to hundreds of high school students since 1996, but now looks set to shut down because of cuts in Federal Government funding.

“The program is often the difference between a young person staying in or dropping out of school,” says Gavin Peek, the co-ordinator of The Shack Youth Service.

The School Tutoring Program assists struggling students from nine high schools in the Randwick and Botany local government areas who can’t afford private tuition, by pairing them with volunteer tutors from the University of NSW in weekly one-to-one sessions.

Students, parents and program co-ordinators regard the program as highly successful.

One parent whose son was performing poorly at school, described the change in his self-esteem and grades as a result of the program, in a letter to The Shack.

“This year my son was tutored in maths by Steve, a first year law student. In his mid-term maths exam he got 74 per cent, but this time last year he was sitting on around 40 per cent and a D grading. He feels really good about himself and no longer thinks that he is no good at maths,” she wrote.

Scarlett Ha, a fourth-year UNSW student who co-ordinated the tutors in 2009, says the program is very popular with university students who feel it’s a way of “giving back” to the community.

“We often have more university students volunteering for the program than we can deal with,” she says. “It’s rewarding not just for the high school students but the tutors as well. They say they get so much out of it.”

The School Tutoring Program has been operating on a budget of $20,000 annually, which was granted to The Shack Youth Service by the Federal Department of Employment, Education and Workplace Relations.

After a government review and restructure of funding for all youth services in 2009, The Shack was required to resubmit a tender to continue with projects like the School Tutoring Program. Their submission was unsuccessful.

Gavin Peek says the restructure was unexpected, but after undertaking a six-month tender process they were not surprised at the outcome.

“They only allocated one pool of money. Previously they funded a lot of different services but with the restructure, they only funded one tender in the entire City of Sydney area. We put in a good consortium bid, but we knew it would be competitive. Obviously, we are very disappointed about the outcome.”

Even though they were not successful, The Shack has continued to run the School Tutoring Program with the Arc on a reduced budget and reserve funds. But now, Gavin Peek says that unless funding comes from elsewhere, the program will have to end.

Peek has been in discussion with the Bendigo Bank in Clovelly, which brokers partnerships to support community projects. The Bank’s manager, Peter Swan says to cut the program “defies logic” and has sent a letter to the member for Coogee, Paul Pearce and the Minister for Youth, Peter Primrose to seek support from the NSW State Government.

“It costs a pittance to provide this excellent service to the community and help young people realise their maximum potential, regardless of their financial or academic means,” says Swan.

Swan says he has not yet received a reply from the State Government.

by Rachel Maher