FAMILIES impacted by the imminent closure of a childcare centre at Victoria University’s Newport campus last night voted to protest outside the creche at 9.30am tomorrow.
Teaching at VU in Newport will end in December, with the campus slated for closure in February, following the state government’s $34million VU TAFE funding cut.
As a result, the 26-year-old centre, which provides care for 78 children, was also scheduled to close at the year’s end.
A stay has been granted until February 28, but parents are demanding the centre stays open for another year to buy them time.
National Tertiary Education Union president and Friends of Victoria University spokesman Paul Adams said the centre’s closure would be a ‘‘disaster’’ for parents, with most childcare places in Hobsons Bay already filled and waiting lists of up to two years.
“A new childcare centre is due to open nearby in January 2013 but meanwhile many parents – mostly women – are likely to be left without alternatives and may have to consider leaving paid employment to care for their children,’’ he said.
VU leases the centre land from the Treasury and Finance Department for $350,000 a year.
At a crisis meeting on campus last night, parents heard that VU had agreed to keep the centre open for another year if the lease could be reduced to an ‘‘affordable amount’’.
One mother told the meeting parents needed to know whether the centre would remain open or whether they had to enrol their children elsewhere.
Friends of Victoria University, parents and staff will demonstrate in the morning.
More to come.
