Education and skills

With 75 babies born each week, that’s a minimum of 3,900 children needing kinder in three years’ time, and primary school in five years’ time. Infrastructure Victoria estimates that the regions of Wyndham and Melton–Bacchus Marsh will need a combined extra 28,000 school desks between 2026 and 2036.

Population growth estimates show that by 2030, the number of primary school children in the City of Melton will increase from 25,369 in 2025 to over 38,255 in 2035 – an increase of 12,886 more primary school children across the municipality in just 10 years. The delivery of primary schools must be aligned with this projected future need. Infrastructure Victoria states that the schools should be built bigger from the outset to cater for the projected growth rather than uplift and temporary facilities being brought in as the school grows.

Planning for the delivery of additional secondary schools is also critical as we estimate that the increase of 9,848 secondary students by 2035 will require an additional nine secondary schools.

Many schools in the City of Melton are already exceeding capacity resulting in limited access to co-curricular subjects including trade, arts and IT. We work closely with the Department of Education and Training and the Victorian School Building Authority to identify potential future school sites and call on the Victorian Government to continue to invest in education addressing equity and inclusion, giving all children their best start in life to reach their full potential. 

mainstream curriculum is not the only requirement for learning in the City of Melton. Access to specialised learning including English as a second language, STEM, tech schools and special needs learning is accessible in all other areas of Melbourne. Residents of the City of Melton, do not have the same level of access to specialised education.

A dedicated STEM-focused curriculum would give secondary students from our community access to high-tech, hands-on programs that provide skills they need to navigate the future workplace that includes automation and globalisation. Our rapidly increasing population of aspirational families and students would thrive if given the opportunity to attend a secondary school focused on STEM, especially girls. It would also provide them tertiary and workplace opportunities already afforded students in other parts of Melbourne. We are also seeking the establishment of a Tech School in the City of Melton.

A significant part of the growth in the City of Melton is from overseas migration. Our city has 63,763 residents, or 36 per cent of the total population born overseas and 69,725 residents, or 39 per cent, who speak a language other than English at home.

There are currently newly arrived, school-aged children and young people in the municipality attending mainstream local schools without the support of a specialised English language curriculum.

The Western English Language School (WELS) for newly arrived students provides a specialised curriculum. Students who attend mainstream school after studying at WELS have a higher rate of academic success and Victorian Certificate of Education completion. Our local schools have reported that a large percentage of students who were entitled to receive 6–12 months of intensive English language instruction through WELS did not enrol due to the long public transport round-trip journey to and from the Braybrook campus. While there is now a primary-level English language school, a secondary-level school is urgently required.

An additional specialist school is required across the municipality to increase accessibility to quality education for all children. It is important that people are provided choice and equity in access to specialist programs and services.

We welcome the commitment to build the new TAFE campus in Cobblebank by 2028. We want to ensure that the TAFE can skill work to fill existing workforce gaps and prepare for future workforce needs including logistics, health, education and community services. We call on the Victorian Government to partner with the Australian Government to invest further to extend the TAFE offering to meet this requirement.

Cobblebank is the perfect location for a university campus aligned with the new Melton Hospital to train doctors, nurses, midwifery, maternal child health and allied health specialists for outer metropolitan areas and regional centres. Situated near the new TAFE, Cobblebank secondary school and hospital, a university in Cobblebank will be close to the rail station connecting students from our region to the skills they need locally.

Attracting and retaining teachers within the City of Melton is very difficult, and workforce gaps sometimes mean classes go without teachers. There is an immediate need to skill locally. Establishing a university in Cobblebank will help create high-skilled, high-paying jobs. It will see Cobblebank become a health and education precinct of national significance with hospitals, schools, TAFE, and future civic and justice provision.

A university in Cobblebank will deliver on the four pillars of the 2024 Australian University Accord, a government initiative to improve the quality, accessibility, affordability, and sustainability of Australia’s higher education system.

The City of Melton community experiences some of the lowest levels of literacy in the state. In the last analysis of Victorian adult literacy, it was found that within the City of Melton 17 per cent of adults have low-level literacy, compared with the statewide average of 14 per cent. Up to 3 per cent more of our school-aged children are considered developmentally vulnerable regarding language and cognitive skills, and communication skills. A significantly lower proportion of our children aged six months to four years are read to by a family member every day (54 per cent), compared with the Victorian average 70 per cent.

For our community, these statistics underscore the need for increased investment in the development of literacy skills. While not part of the formal education and training system, libraries play a vital complementary and community-based role in promoting and encouraging literacy development. Public libraries support families by providing free literacy and learning resources and early literacy programs, encouraging families to borrow and utilise library resources to broaden learning.

Infrastructure Victoria projects that by 2036, the City of Melton will service one library per 47,000 residents compared with other inner councils with one library per 4,000 residents. With the need for three additional libraries across the City of Melton over the next decade, Council supports Infrastructure Victoria and the Outer Metropolitan Councils in calling for equal joint funding from the Victorian Government, Australian Government and local governments to build new libraries.