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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.