Rural and Remote Education - Victoria

Rural

and Remote Education - Victoria

Extracts from submissions

Extracts

from submissions on education costs

Grahame and

Lynda Code, Victoria

"Capital and financial

assistance should be given to enable modern communication equipment, including

computers, fax and dedicated telephone lines for this to be available

for children in rural and remote areas. Ongoing financial help should

also be considered, to keep the equipment up to date with modern technology.

We also do not have "mains" electricity, and it is necessary for us to

generate power. There is a significant cost in this. At present we can

supply enough power to run the house with 240 v AC power for two hours

in total."

Extracts

from submissions on distance education

Chris Jansen,

Hamilton, Victoria

"A different slant

on distance education is the lack of community and special facilities

available to children in small rural centres. These are for example, museums,

zoos, scienceworks, theatres, major sporting venues eg MCG, Tennis Centre,

etc. Our children face long trips by bus (300 km to Melbourne one way)

to get to these facilities and require accommodation if staying overnight.

These facilities are easily available to city children but beyond the

reach of most rural children and schools. Subsidies should be provided

for travel and accommodation for our children and their teachers to assist

in the cultural and scientific education of our children to enable them

to attend these facilities as required."

Extracts

from submissions on information technology

Chris Jansen,

Hamilton, Victoria

"Our primary school

has approximately 30 computers for students in a school of over 200 students.

These computers are funded, in the main, by the hard work of the parents

and friends committee and all parents of our students. As information

technology is going to be the basis of our society in years to come I

would like to see government funding and support for computer purchases

in our schools.

"Teachers must also

be provided with an adequate number of terminals and the appropriate software

to enable a high standard of teaching in schools. I am sure that even

in primary schools, teachers will, in the not too distant future, be teaching

students with the direct use of computer software with mediums similar

to PowerPoint presentations and they must have the resources to do so.

Funding for IT support must dramatically increase to enable schools to

keep up with our changing times."

Extracts

from submissions on teacher incentives, development and retention

Chris Jansen,

Hamilton, Victoria

"A large proportion

of small rural centres has difficulty in attracting teachers to teach

in their schools. There is no disputing this statement.

"I feel this is as

a result of a number of issues:

• teacher training

  is conducted in major cities and large rural cities and graduates have

  no difficulty in obtaining employment in these cities and therefore

  do not look elsewhere in the bush for employment;

• new graduates

  are generally young and see little attraction in small rural centres

  with limited availability of recreation, sporting and cultural activities;

• more experienced

  teachers in the cities are not interested in teaching in small rural

  centres as they generally have family commitments, may have bought houses

  and are generally settled into city life and do not want to become unsettled

  by moving their households to the country;

• there are no incentives

  to attract teachers to rural centres;

• limited ability

  to undertake further study in small rural centres as there are no university

  or higher education facilities in these centres;

• limited opportunities

  for professional development and peer review due to the smaller numbers

  of resident teachers in these centres.

"And I'm sure there

are many other reasons. However I see these as major reasons for the lack

of interest in teachers moving to and staying in smaller rural centres.

"Recently our school

had a teacher vacancy and struggled to get any applicants. Principals

generally have to be proactive and seek out applicants to apply by ringing

around education facilities looking for applicants, or other similar schools

in the cities who have recently advertised for teachers to find out if

there were any likely or prospective applicants among them.

"I propose a couple

of options to try and alleviate this disproportion:

• compulsory rural

  terms for all newly qualified teachers of say 1 to 2 years in small

  rural centres subject to vacancies;

• teacher incentives

  to live and work in small rural centres e.g. graded salary increases

  the further you live away from the capital city and/or allowances for

  working in small rural centres for continued education and professional

  development."

Last

updated 2 December 2001.