Victoria’s peak education equity organisations have launched a major push to reshape the state’s school system so every child, regardless of postcode, has a fair chance to thrive.
Announced on 26 November, ‘The Collective’ is an initiative of Education Equity Alliance (EEA), a not-for-profit organisation led by passionate teachers and school leaders. EEA began operations in July 2024 and has since brought together its coalition of 25 equity partners and established its Leadership Council of 25 students, teachers and NGO leaders with the support of five philanthropic partners.
“We have listened deeply to more than 2,000 students and educators across low-SES school communities, who repeatedly share that the education system is under-serving those who need it most,” a media release announcing The Collective stated.
“We have galvanised our Collective members, established an innovative Leadership Council and identified clear priorities to drive real change to meet this urgent need.”
Tim Warwick, Founder and CEO of the Education Equity Alliance, said while Victoria has an education system full of schools, government and NGOs working extremely hard to provide students with equitable learning opportunities, there are still consistent challenges to getting these supports to the students and communities that need them most.
“These include competing policy and program demands falling on shoulders of teachers and school leaders, a lack of clarity of which supports are going where, and limited opportunities for collaboration between supporting organisations AND between supports and schools,” Warwick told The Educator.
“The Leadership Council will oversee The Collective’s projects to address these challenges. These include establishing a mapping tool that will identify the supports available across Victorian low-SES schools, as well as convening schools and support organisations to explore agreed ways of working to enable effective partnerships.”
Warwick said there is critical work that must occur in schools to achieve equity, including empowering their students and teachers and ensuring high levels of trust, but schools can’t do it alone – and this reality underpins the work of the Leadership Council.
The education system must be working collaboratively to ensure they are enabling schools to do this work,” he said.
“This is why it is so important that the wider system hears directly from the young people and educators experiencing the inequity each day so that everyone can be on the same page about what achieving education equity asks of us.”
Warwick said the next step is shifting how the system works together to drive change.
“This will result in great efficiency and effectiveness across our system, which will reduce the pressure on school leaders and teachers and allow them to focus on the root causes of education equity.”