Rural and Remote Education - SA

Rural and Remote Education - SA

Extracts from submissions

Submissions on financial support

Open Access College Council, Marsden Education Centre, March 1999

"Families with students enrolled in distance education have a number of expenses that current allowances (AIC = Assistance for Isolated Children) do not fully cover. The major cost for families is the employment of a paid supervisor. Travel is another major cost and although subsidy is available through the Country Areas Program the subsidy is unrealistic in terms of current fuel prices and the wear and tear on vehicles travelling on unsealed roads over very long distances in South Australia.

"South Australia provides an allowance, School Card for low-income families. In 1999 a secondary student is allowed $170 per annum and a primary student $110 per annum. This figure is unrealistic in terms of current costs for books, materials and excursions."

Submissions on technological support

Open Access College Council, Marsden Education Centre, March 1999

"At the moment in South Australia the infrastructure for technology in rural and remote areas is poor. The college has successfully trialled the use of the Internet for conferencing with distance education students. Parents and teachers have indicated that using technology has motivated students, has improved the interaction between the teacher and student and has reduced the isolation as students can communicate through e-mail.

"The problem for remote and rural families is the cost of the provision of appropriate hardware and software and the lack of easy access to one workstation per family with a modem and printer and individual software licenses. This is much more expensive to set up than the concept of a computer room or individual computers on a Local Area Network (LAN) in a school environment. The Federal government needs to consider some sort of subsidy scheme or grant to provide access to this technology for remote and isolated families, similar to the Homestead Video Scheme of the 1970s when these families had not access to television."

Submissions on students with disabilities

Open Access College Council, Marsden Education Centre, March 1999

"Families with children with disabilities do not often stay in a rural or remote community because the support services they need do not exist. There is a lack of access to Guidance Officers, speech pathologists and respite care.

"Staffing for students with disabilities studying by distance education needs to be different from that for face to face schooling. Resources are needed for smaller classes and adapting materials. Teacher aide support for toileting or scribing is inappropriate in a remote community where there is no person to employ and the parent is the unpaid supervisor of the student's work."

Submissions on accessibility

Rendelsham Primary School Council, SA

"The state education department does not allocate specific funds to country schools to offset the tyranny of distance. The costs of rural education for families include: excursion costs to major urban centres, resources costs such as re postage and freight, accessing public resources eg libraries, museums, etc, cost of internet services, access to public transport, access to sporting activities, curriculum based activities and parental involvement in school based programs is impacted upon by the cost of travel to families."

Submissions on education funding

Sally Paterson, Chairperson, Murraylands District Leaders Group, SA

"Government funding must be allocated in a way which can accommodate the situation of country schools. For example, allocating School Card funds on the basis of the fortnightly income of a family does not take account of those families who receive income irregularly and possibly in large amounts very infrequently. The system also requires school staff to understand and operate complex social security systems without adequate and timely information.

Last updated 2 December 2001.