When the NSW Government gave a $500,000 grant to the Gold Coast-based Ashland music Academy to create a new high school, the primary aim was to make it the “new Mecca of music”.
But the school has struggled to attract a skilled workforce.
One of its students, Alex Daley, says it is “the best thing” that happened to the school since the NSW government gave it money to fund the school.
“Theres just so many things happening at the school right now, like it has no money,” he said.
“We’re really lucky to have the support of the government.
It has been an incredible thing to see.”
One of the academy’s biggest problems is the lack of funding.
It only has a budget of $890,000, which is less than half of the $1.3 million that it needed to attract an industry-leading group of students.
Students were encouraged to pursue an acting and singing career, but have not been able to achieve that.
The students were not given a budget to complete their coursework and they are currently in a “collaborative learning environment”, Mr Daley said.
He said it was a “massive setback” to the academy, which was hoping to attract up to 40 students.
“Its like when we opened the doors and we have people coming in and saying ‘oh this is so much better than the old school’,” he said of the new school.
Students who graduated last year have also been “left out of the loop”.
The academy’s principal, Paul Brown, said he was surprised the funding was not increased.
“I think a lot of people, people like the parents, maybe would be concerned because we’re not going to have any funding from the state,” he told News.co.au.
“But it is important to us that we do get funding.”
The new school is not the only problem.
Students are also struggling to get into the arts, where they will have to wait until the end of this year to finish their courses.
Mr Brown said the school was working to get the remaining students enrolled in the arts curriculum, but admitted the “resilience” of the arts and humanities was “not at the top of our priority list”.
“We’ve got a lot more work to do to make sure that we’re doing that,” he explained.
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People say ‘oh well its not your fault’. Its not.”