Rural and Remote Education - Tasmania
Rural
and Remote Education - Tasmania
Submission from the Tasmanian
Catholic Education Commission
Preamble
The Tasmanian Catholic
Education Commission through the services of the Hobart Catholic Education
Office, seeks to ensure that opportunities for Catholic education are
available to all Catholics in Tasmania. The mission of the Church is evangelisation
and, in collaboration with Catholic schools, education in faith is made
available to Catholic and Christian children.
Education in faith
is the teaching of the Good News in a Christian environment that teaches
the Eight defined National Learning Areas. Education in faith also involves
providing the occasions to practice the faith by participating in religious
services and celebrations, and providing the occasions where socialisation
is available in the contexts of cultural, social and sporting activities.
Education in faith
is about the full development and growth, spiritually, emotionally, socially,
intellectually, physically and aesthetically, of each individual to their
fullest potential respecting the uniqueness and worth of each person.
Purpose
The purpose of this
submission is to highlight to the Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission
issues that are discriminatory for families seeking Catholic education
in rural and remote areas.
- many families
in rural and remote areas have lower than average disposable incomes
- many children
in rural and remote areas have limited and narrow socialisation opportunities
- many children
in rural and remote areas are either unable or not prepared to continue
their education beyond Grade 10
- rural and remote
schools frequently have difficulties recruiting quality staff, retaining
them other than for short periods, and providing professional development
for their teachers
- rural and remote
schools are confronted with higher costs and difficult access of professional
support services and technological services.
A single significant
discriminatory factor for families, students and schools is transport.
Issues
Average Disposable
Income
Families of children
attending Catholic schools in rural areas of Tasmania have on average
a smaller disposable income than their city and urban counterparts.
Living costs in rural
areas of Tasmania are recognised as being higher due primarily to two
factors. Firstly, small rural towns have established service centres and
businesses that are rarely challenged by new competitors and secondly,
the acceptance by rural service centres and businesses that all goods
and services will include a transport component cost. Over recent years
there has been a reduction in the range of services offered by service
centres as various services have been closed for economic reasons. The
closure of services has been a further financial impost on rural and remote
families.
The average family
income of rural families is lower than their city counterparts. Data from
the Socio Economic Status (SES) based on ABS census collecting areas,
which includes measures of income (family and individual), occupation
and education, indicates that for Tasmanian rural and remote Catholic
schools the index measure is 91.86 and for city and urban Catholic schools
the index measure is 99.44. Similar evidence is obtained from the ABS
census 1996:
Weekly Income
(percentage of Catholic families)
0 to $499 | $500 to $999 | $1000 to $1499 | $1500 upwards | |
City and Urban |
17.3%
|
42.4%
|
28.2%
|
12.1%
|
Rural and Remote |
25.0%
|
42.3%
|
22.2%
|
10.5%
|
For rural families
to exercise their choice of educating their children in Catholic schools
they are expected to pay school fees (even though they are on average
lower than city schools), but for this reason greater involvement in fundraising
(demanding both a financial and active input) is also expected. Rural
families are therefore in a situation of having a smaller disposable income
with which to pay for the education of their choice. There are also additional
costs associated with their choice with families having to meet possible
daily bus costs to and from school, cost of school excursions to facilitate
required learning outcomes and private vehicle expenses to attend religious,
sporting and social activities which are associated with the school's
learning program.
Transport costs are
a single significant discriminatory factor for families in rural areas
of Tasmania.
The lack of public
transport, or the restricted nature of public transport, not only impinges
on families but also upon schools. Many schools in rural areas are limited
in their scope to offer learning programs outside of school hours and
even the school hours are constrained by bus timetables and other local
factors.
Socialisation
Opportunities
Many children in
rural areas of Tasmania have limited opportunities to socialise with their
peers and other members of their local community outside of school hours.
Their isolation is quite severe because of the absence of public transport,
the inherent dangers of walking or riding along narrow country roads,
the unavailability of parents to regularly transport their children to
and from friends or activities, and the prohibitive practice of sharing
transport with other families.
Limited socialisation
of children is generally recognised as contributing to lower self esteem
and self realisation.
Where and when socialisation
does eventuate within a small local community the children usually experience
a narrow range of attitudes and set of preferred practices. Many rural
children feel 'inadequate' and set apart when they are unable to relate
to or feel comfortable with attitudes and practices of their local community.
Generally, for healthy mental and emotional development children require
the experience of interacting with a broad range of attitudes and practices
while still being in their formative years of growth and development.
The breadth of cultural experience may also be limited or biased within
a local community and also the faith development and practice of children
may be similarly limited.
Continuing
Education
The retention rate
for rural students completing six years of secondary schooling in Tasmanian
Catholic schools is lower than for their city and urban counterparts.
It is further recognised
that youth unemployment is much higher in rural centres than city areas
and youth suicide is at an alarmingly high level in rural areas. The potential
and talents of our rural youth appear to be lost or left underdeveloped
and under utilised.
Rural students frequently
prefer to seek employment or training within their local community. The
motivation of students to seek local employment has a practical aspect,
the cost, time and difficulty of accessing transport or accommodation
away from home, and an emotional aspect, lower self confidence and sense
of worth.
Schools and
Staff
Anecdotal evidence
strongly indicates that the number of applications for a teaching position
in a rural school is always far less than for a city school and that the
generally quality of city school applicants is also higher. Rural schools
also have a significant percentage of teachers on staff for longer periods
and consequently the average age of teachers is higher and the accommodation
of educational change more difficult.
Rural schools are
therefore required to concentrate more of their resources on providing
professional development for staff while confronting the difficulty of
accessing appropriate and quality providers of professional development.
The isolation of rural schools linked with the likelihood that teachers
also live in the district also adds to the difficulty of staff obtaining
professional development outside of the school's programme and hours.
In many rural areas
in Tasmania it is almost impossible to obtain suitably qualified relief
teachers for teachers who are ill or for teachers wishing to attend professional
development programmes.
Support Services
The availability
and accessibility of professional support in the areas of Speech Pathology,
Psychological Assessment, Occupational Therapy, etc is frequently poor
or non existent for rural schools. The children are disadvantaged not
only educationally but also emotionally, physically and socially. Any
professional support services accessed also carry a travel cost component
that has to be meet either by the family or the school. Again, a question
of the quality of the service can also be a practical problem.
Children in particular
with physical disabilities can be severely disadvantaged and both the
family and the school confronted with extra costs. The transportation,
physical care, building suitability, teacher resourcing and community
education can all be significant problems faced by families and schools.
The accessibility
and cost of technological support services further add to the financial
challenges faced by families and schools in rural areas.
Challenges
The challenge faced
by Australia is to ensure the full development and the full realisation
of the potential and inherent worth of each individual who lives in a
rural or remote area of our country. To achieve this goal positive discrimination
is required for rural children directly and indirectly to the families
of these children and to schools in rural areas that serve these children.
- Positive discrimination
in regards to resources such as technological support services, school
and public transport, professional services
- Financial assistance
to families who choose an educational institution that has a particular
faith mission
- A strengthening
and broadening of existing local infra structures that support the full
growth and development of children in rural areas
The challenge for
Australia is to maximise the growth of the country by maximising the growth
potential of children in rural and remote areas of Australia. Through
the ideals of the Convention on the Rights of the Child children in rural
and remote areas will achieve respect for their rights and the chance
of equal opportunity.
Note that the
tables of relevant statistics supplied by the Tasmanian Catholic Education
Commission are not published here.
Last
updated 2 December 2001.