Mooroopna needs a school, but must avoid problems of the old one

By Max Stainkamph

Sep 21, 2022

Campaign: Community members in Mooroopna put together a petition to get a high school reopened in the town. Photo by Rechelle Zammit

Mooroopna has been firmly in the spotlight recently, with much of that focus — aside from a little light brawling after a football match — on a proposed new school in the town.

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Should the Victorian Coalition win government in November, the process will begin to get a secondary school west of the river, which will more than likely be in Mooroopna, following consultation.

Mooroopna, with a population of more than 15,000 people, would surely be the largest town in Victoria without a high school.

More than 1000 people signed a petition calling for the reopening of Mooroopna Secondary College, a move organisers and politicians emphasise is about choice, and not the controversial Greater Shepparton Secondary College.

Ensuring the discussion stays focused on the needs of Mooroopna and how to make a new school work — not on the alleged failings of the GSSC — should be the focus.

GSSC doesn’t work for every single student — no school ever does. Not having the option to move to anywhere closer than Numurkah or Kyabram is unfair and difficult for both students and parents.

That choice is needed, no matter how often the government spruiks how good the GSSC is (and for many students it’s terrific) or how many neighbourhoods there are (three).

No amount of money can get around the fact some teenagers go through challenges, and a lot of them take out their problems on their peers.

To not have an option to move to another school could compound issues such as bullying.

Our children deserve the choice to move away from an environment they won’t thrive in.

On the other side of the fence I love sitting on so dearly — the GSSC was founded to counteract chronic underfunding across Greater Shepparton, schools being unable to offer broad ranges of subjects, and students travelling to other schools for classes.

Opening a new school could bring back some of these problems, simply by virtue of economies of scale.

That can’t happen.

I don’t know how you open a new school and avoid these problems, but answers aren’t yet needed — even if the Coalition gets into government, a new school would be years down the road.

Plenty of experienced and knowledgable people would be involved in consultation and might have answers, but the hundreds of people calling to ‘just reopen the school now’ won’t be able to get what they want.

Choice is needed. How we deliver that choice will be the crux of the debate.