Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission Website

Rural and Remote Education - NSW

Moree Secondary Students meeting, 5 March 1999 - notes

School profiles

Students from Moree Technology High School, Courallie High School and Boggabilla High School participated.
At Courallie there are 10 students in Year 12 and 35 in Year 11. At Moree Technology High there are 40 in Year 12 and 40-50 in Year 11. The schools are 3-4 km apart.
The students listed the following issues for discussion: travel, sport, physical facilities, technology, subject choice, use of TAFE, teachers, racism in the schools and Aboriginal Studies. Where possible the identity of the school is disclosed.

Travel

Rain causes roads to close making it impossible to get to school.
Buses usually overloaded.
Roads always in poor condition - it's always really bumpy.
It takes up to 2.5 hours to get to school per day for some kids; some kids have to wake up at 5am and it takes them about 3.25 hours per day.
No wheelchair access on the buses; people with disabilities usually go away to boarding school.
If you're caught at home by floods the schools don't organise any work for you. That means you're a long way behind everyone else. It happened last year near the time of our exams.
There's usually stuff happening on the bus that shouldn't be; the drivers don't keep an eye on the kids.
The conditions on the buses aren't always up to scratch; the seats are torn or broken.
Gravel roads create dust problems and a lot of kids suffer from asthma out in the country and they get really bad asthma from the dust coming in.
If you want to go away for an excursion, the time it takes to get there and the cost - the tyranny of distance. Mostly the families carry the cost. It cost us $30 to go to Inverell 100 km away to play football.

Sport

Boggabilla students can play volleyball, touch and soccer. They'd like also to have tennis, softball and table tennis.
There are a lot of sports that the school won't have anything to do with, even though a lot of students want to do it. An example given was wrestling. Or the say they'll have a football team but they don't have a coach. Or they organise the training on the day the game's supposed to be played. It only gets organised if one of the teacher takes interest in the sport.
Other school teams won't come to Moree. The Moree teams must travel or forfeit, including to Inverell, Armidale, Gunnedah, Walgett, Warialda etc. We always have to pay for our own transport. And it takes a long time to get there.

Physical facilities - Moree Technology High

Block heaters - concrete in metal cases - in the rooms are not effective. Hardly any of them work. You've got to sit on them to get any heat.
In a lot of the older classrooms the cooling doesn't work - air conditioners are non-existent.
A lot of the older classrooms are not secure. One of the classrooms has been broken into 4 or 5 times. Also our music classroom. Three stereos have been stolen in the past two years. The alarm goes back but it's too late by the time someone gets there.
The Agricultural Farm is very small. It's too small to find out what real farming practices are like. Moree is smack in the middle of an agricultural area. A lot more people here do Agriculture here than at other schools. A high number for the facility to handle - two classes full. The facilities here could be a lot better considering how many people there are wanting to learn it.
Lack of musical instruments. Only two CD players in the school; one of them owned by a teacher. Leads, cords and other basic music equipment is lacking.
Internet connection: there's only two computers that have internet access. They are in the Library and are very slow. It's due to the quality of the computer and the server.
Sporting equipment is old and of poor quality. The weight room is old. Metal work students made some of the equipment in the weight room. Anything to do with sport we have to use the Council facilities; we don't have our own. People abuse the school sports facilities over the weekends - such as the backboards and rings on the basketball courts.
Lack of facilities for people with disabilities. This school has three stories and only stair access. I know someone who went to Courallie (sp?) while he was on crutches with a broken leg because it only has two floors instead of three.

Physical facilities - Courallie High

One day at Courallie we sat in 38 degree heat with no fans or airconditioning working.
Also there's a lack of maths textbooks at Courallie and the ones that we do have are going to be out of date soon. It takes so long for us to get resources back to the school after ordering them. You ring up and say "Where are they?" and they say "Where's Moree?".
A girl at our school is doing a correspondence course and she hasn't got her gear yet. I was doing something by Distance Education in Walgett and after I sent away my application it took 3-4 weeks to get the materials.
We have limited access to the internet and other computers. With the internet it's so much time per student per week. The whole school only has four hours a day and there's only one computer with internet access.
We have limited access to photocopying for the students.
We have a very good range of sporting equipment at Courallie. The Student Representative Council has assisted in buying the stuff.
Our music equipment is good for the amount of students we have; but it could be better.
We have some new computers but a lot of them are old and out of date.
We have good facilities for people with disabilities. There are two Special Ed classes in the school. One of those classrooms has a ramp.

Technology - Moree Technology High

We've got the computers at the school but we're not allowed to use them. We have 3 classrooms full - there must be about 40 including in the library. The Computer Studies classes use them - but they have really out of date textbooks. Most people are computer-illiterate. The only people that know are people who own their own computers. There are students who are really gifted with what they do with computers, but they're not allowed to use them and experiment. I learnt more about computers in the school holidays than I did in the whole of last year at school.
The teachers aren't really trained to teach computers. Most don't really know how to use the internet at all.
We've been banned from using certain programs. When you log on as a student, not much comes up: only Microsoft Word and Excel is basically all we use and sometimes Photoshop. There are games you're not allowed to use which is fair enough. But for people who want to learn about programming computers there's not much. We've been banned from using DOS because someone sent a message across the whole network - even though it only said 'Hello'. They could teach the gifted people - the ones who are good at hacking - to be a lot better and also to be responsible, but they just say 'Don't do that sort of thing' and stop them from doing anything at all. If the teachers went for it there are students who could go a long way with computers and get a good job in a computer company. If the teachers were prepared to teach them. The students who want to learn aren't being taught the new stuff. The syllabus needs to be updated and they need to teach the practical as well as the theory. Also the theory the textbooks cover is out of date.
Computers are only available for Computer Studies. They're not used in other subjects. Students without a computer at home are disadvantaged. We have to book the computers in the library to use in our own time.
There are a number of service providers in Moree. It can be slow sometimes. The telephone lines are very low speed so you can't expect anything really fast.

Technology - Courallie High

At Courallie there is one room with computers which students don't use because they're too old. They break down a lot and there's very limited internet access.

Subject choice

We've got a variety of subjects available. But the subjects aren't necessarily applicable for our future endeavours and further education.
Correspondence subjects are difficult to handle and cope with because there's not much contact with the teachers. We can't get extra help from teachers in the school so we're basically on our own. I'm doing Engineering Science by correspondence and when I have questions there aren't any teachers in the school who are qualified to teach it.
We can't do Economics, French (two girls are learning it by correspondence but I wouldn't do that; they send tapes out), Tech. Drawing, Computer Design, Photography, Engineering, 3-Unit Legal Studies.
One subject at one school runs with just two students. At another Tech. Drawing was cancelled because only two students chose it.
The Boggabilla students all do the same subjects and there are 10 students in each class.
If the teacher knows what they're doing, it's better. If they don't, it's a waste of time.

TAFE

A lot of people do TAFE in Year 10 and 11. If they do a certain amount of hours at TAFE in their own time they get credit for it in the next year at school. The subjects are only offered if there are enough people enrolled. The subjects are connected with work prospects such as cotton-related subjects.
TAFE offers childcare and that sort of stuff.

Teachers - length of stay

Most of them come straight out of Uni without any experience. They're not really sure what to do and they don't take control of the class. The students just do what they want.
Some of them are good because they bring new ideas and new teaching methods.
It takes them a lot of time settling in, getting to know all the students and the staff. Most of them come from the city - it's a different environment.
There's a high turnover every year. At Moree Technology High we had 16 new teachers this year. Including our whole Science staff except for the head teacher - who only came the year before.
The teachers who want to stay in Moree - who become locals - they're the good teachers. The ones who leave after two years - you don't really learn much off them. They stay for 4 years and then go to the coast.
Some have had the experience of beginning a subject which had to be cancelled when the teacher left or went on long service leave. One student reported being 'taught' Metal Work by a teacher without qualifications in that subject and not being permitted to do any practical work, touch any tools, etc. We sat there and wrote notes. We did theory which we'd done the year before.
At Moree Technology High the students report there are no qualified Ag. Teachers. Last year there were four different Ag. Teachers for one class over just one year. Each one would come for a few weeks and then leave and another would come. Each one had a different method.
Some classes continue after a teacher leaves, but they shouldn't because the new teacher isn't qualified.

Racism in the schools

Gang wars in the schools were reported. On the weekend something will happen and people will come looking for you at school on the Monday. One day there were three fights at the one time at Moree Technology High. Within a few minutes there were seven fights. There was nearly a riot. All the students were watching all of these fights. The teachers couldn't get in to do anything because of all the people. Even if they did get through they would have got beaten up. One elderly female teacher was knocked over.
It's hard to keep your mind on your work when you're thinking about beating someone's head in or getting your own head beaten in after school. A lot of people get worried about their personal safety after school and on the weekends. We get threatened that big brother or uncle or cousin or father will come looking for us.
All the school can do is suspend people to deal with racism. They just threaten them, don't do it again. The teachers say they'll act on it the next time, but they don't. Teachers have their hands tied. Sometimes they bring the police into the school to stop it but it just keeps going on and on all the time. About 3 or 4 times they came in last year. A lot of people at school aren't feeling safe. People from outside the school - relations of students - will jump the fence. A teacher took some people home from school in the car.
There's a lot of brawls that could be stopped but the teachers don't step in. Fair enough that they don't have to risk their own safety. They can't physically restrain anyone. Yesterday people were throwing bins at each other.
People are fighting about abuse, derogatory racist terms. It happens both ways. The teachers say you shouldn't say it and they punish some people for doing it but most of the time they can't stop it.
Sometimes the fights that happen isn't because the other person's Aboriginal. It's because they don't like them as a person; personality clashes.
We used to have a mediation program running with students trained to sit down with the antagonists. It wasn't working so they cancelled it.
A lot of the problems involved theft and assaults on the weekend and after school. They sort it out at school - it's the most convenient place because they're both there and all their friends are there. Usually they have a large group of friends and that's how it turns into gangs. It's not just black against white. There's the horsey people - the cowboys - and the street kids.
Sometimes the Aboriginal kids and the white kids mix; sometimes not. Sometimes when I'm with my white friends some Aboriginal kids call me a 'gubbah-lover' and tease me.
At Courallie there's a section called 'black bays' and another place called 'white bays' where people sit. But the Year 10 boys all sit together; they all get on together.
The kids hang around together because they were at Primary School together. [The Moree primary schools are substantially racially segregated.] After three years at high school you start to make more Aboriginal friends.
Race relations could change for the better. At the moment there's a lot of resentment built up between the two races, we don't trust each other at all. The discipline should be followed through the same for everyone. Some people think of suspension as a holiday.
They could run little peer groups with everyone telling their side of the story and just join in as one group. Beat the problem like that.

Aboriginal Studies

We did a little bit of local history in Year 7 when we did Australian Studies. But most of it was like Captain Cook and stuff.
We had a local Aboriginal teacher come in and give about four lessons about the history around Moree.
In Year 7 and Year 8 they learn that sort of stuff now. When I was in Year 9 you could pick Aboriginal Studies as an elective. People have picked it. They learn about the Myall Creek massacre in Australian Studies. We know about the exclusions from the Moree Baths as well - we learn about it in Primary School. You take excursions out to sites.
I was surprised when I came here at the start of Year 11 because we've got Aboriginal Studies. This school's a lot better than the other schools I've been to with that sort of thing.
It's the same with me. I came here in Year 7. The school I was at before was from Pre-School to Year 12 and they never offered anything like Aboriginal Studies. Or anything about Aboriginal culture. That was in Queensland though.
At Courallie we have to learn Australian History for the School Certificate. Local culture and language are taught at Boggabilla.
At Moree Technology High we've got Japanese in Year 7. That's kind of a waste of time because after that it just dies. I don't know what the point of that is. We only do it because it's compulsory to learn a language in Year 7. There is no Aboriginal language program at either Moree or Courallie.
At Courallie in Aboriginal Studies we learnt the Kamilaroi region words. We had an elder come in and speak to us and teach us bit by bit. It was interesting to hear her stories and learn some of the words. Very interesting.

Last updated 2 December 2001.