The Australian Education Union says thousands of potential students will miss out on TAFE education opportunities this year unless funding cuts stop, and reinvestment begins.

The AEU's Federal TAFE Secretary Rex Hewett says TAFE D-Day is looming, with state and territory ministers to meet on March 16 to lobby for federal funds.

Mr Hewett says this is a particularly critical time for South Australia, whose TAFE system is the worst-maintained nationally.

"There's a very real danger that SA TAFE students could be caught in a pincer movement between the South Australian and Federal Governments with both refusing adequate growth funds to TAFE, and blaming the other for the problem", Mr Hewett says.

"South Australia's TAFE minister Mark Brindal must put aside any Liberal political allegiances and join with his fellow state and territory ministers to demand more federal dollars. Demand for TAFE courses is steadily increasing at more than 5% annually. In order for funding to match that growth, the federal government must commit an additional $152 million to the sector.

"At the same time, the state government must stop its funding cuts and start reinvesting in this vital area. The South Australian government makes the smallest per capita TAFE contribution of any state or territory, yet it charges the most for TAFE courses. The recent IRC wages and conditions case heard that in the past 10 years, the state government stripped $52.8 million from TAFE.

"The collective failure of governments to fund TAFE has denied thousands of people educational opportunities. According to the latest Australian Bureau of Statistics figures, 46,000 potential students were turned away nationally in 1999, nearly 5,000 of them in South Australia. It's estimated that figure will rise to around 60,000 in the current year.

"That's 60,000 people denied education and training in order to forge a career, and most of them will be people who are presently unemployed, disadvantaged, or living in rural and remote areas," Mr Hewett says.

"South Australia, with its poor unemployment rate, cannot afford to deny people the learning they need in order to get work. Minister Brindal should set the example by promising to increase TAFE funding at a state level, and then convince the federal government to follow suit," he says

Authorised by D. Fitzgerald, AEU President, 120 Clarendon St, Southbank Vic. 3006 Australia