Public Meeting at Wudinna, 11 August 1999 - notes
Wudinna is a small town located on the central Eyre Peninsula, South Australia, 577 km west of Adelaide. The population of Wudinna is 650.
Wudinna Area School has approximately 225 students from Reception through to Year 12. The school's catchment area extends over a distance of approximately 45 km in a north-westerly direction through to Kopi in the south and Koongawa in the east. The majority of parents are involved in farming and associated industries.
The meeting was attended by 12 community members from Wudinna and other towns on the Eyre Peninsula including Kimba, Whyalla, Elliston and Warramboo. From HREOC: Chris Sidoti, Human Rights Commissioner; Dr Alby Jones, Inquiry Co-Commissioner for South Australia; and two Commission staff members.
Jean Fulwood and Veronica Matthews from the Wudinna Area School Council presented a paper outlining their major concerns for school education in Wudinna. The major point was that "All children are entitled to the same choices and opportunities therefore the same resources and facilities, regardless of location if we are to be fair and equitable for kids in education". They discussed senior secondary school, distance education, learning styles, vocational training, skilled teachers and educational standards, Country Areas Program, buses, parent involvement, accessing personnel. These comments are incorporated into the discussion below.
Secondary schooling
It is a feature of the area that parents send their children away for schooling in the senior secondary years. This impacts on the school and community as numbers at the school decline which affects the quality of education for the remaining students; fewer teachers, fewer students for other students to interact with, and an inability to cater for special needs students.
Changes in funding formulae affect the provision of secondary schooling.
"Smaller schools like Elliston which is qualified as a Reception-10 school, lose one year of our access into upper senior secondary because we are qualified as R-10 and senior secondary is supposed to be 10, 11 and 12. So we do not get that first year of support to go away, so those students miss out on those lead up subjects."
Distance education
"For many parents distance education is not seen as a good way to learn because there is no face to face contact. Some students find this really difficult because it relies on good time management skills and good research skills. So obviously their learning styles are important."
It was suggested that time management skills and research skills should be taught in primary school so that students will be prepared for the distance education style of learning.
Students learning by distance education need adequate teacher support and face to face teaching.
Subject choices
Students have to pick up a range of choices through Open Access because the subjects are not available locally. But for students who want to do Publicly Examined Subjects (PES) this can be difficult to cope with and it is preferable to do it face to face with teachers in the school.
"Should our students have to take a less favoured goal because they cannot cope with doing PES Open Access or it's unavailable ... We are limiting their potential. We feel that they should be able to achieve the same goals as students in metropolitan areas can achieve."
"If you lose your choices, parents lose faith and this flows on to the whole community and they become negative towards the school. It becomes important to keep that positive feeling there."
"We have a right to have our children educated. We are people here. We are educated people too. We have a right to hold a family unit together too. We know that once kids leave home that whole family cohesion is not there. People are forced into breaking it at a much earlier age for their children because the choices are not here."
Vocational and technical education
There is a small TAFE unit in Wudinna. Some students at the school work in tandem with TAFE, for example as part of a hospitality or agriculture certificate. These modules can be assessed for the South Australia Certificate of Education (SACE) level. However, there are some difficulties in trying to coordinate the delivery of TAFE and school programs.
Teachers need to be accredited as Workplace Assessors so that students can get their dual credits for both the TAFE and SACE certificates. Teachers need to be supported to access this training.
"I think what the Education Department doesn't realise is while students are doing home economics and technical studies they are still reading and writing. All they see is the cut piece of wood. They don't see them measure it, they don't see them taking some off it, they don't see them making a mess and doing it again, all things you learn from experience. My beef is that these things should be available in all country schools, because the kids that aren't academically inspired are still getting their reading and writing, and doing something that they like . country students want life supporting lessons."
It was suggested that the Education Department should make a point of basing TAFE and technical teachers in a rural area rather than in Adelaide, so that students studying these subjects have access to face to face support and assessment. A technical teacher based in one town would need to travel over the whole area. The government needs to commit to the costs of travel for teachers in a rural area.
"It costs them cheaper to have 50 or 100 teachers in Adelaide in one campus and get them all to send their lessons in than it does to get them to do some face to face teaching."
"A moderator for this area in a practical technology subject was informed that he couldn't attend moderation in Adelaide at the end of last semester and therefore couldn't support the students from the wider area in those subject areas because there was no money available to send him to Adelaide. This disadvantages our Year 12 students because there has been no moderator to go around and see their work and support them."
Special education assistance
There is a lack of preventative help for students with special difficulties, especially those who are only just below average or who fall behind. Poor students need help before they get worse.
"We had a psychologist come and assess one of my children and he was assessed as having learning difficulties. He is in Year 10 now and his spelling is atrocious. So even though he is identified, there is no help for him."
School Support Officer (SSO) hours have been cut. The allocated hours of SSO time differ according to the type of school. For example Area Schools have fewer SSO hours than secondary schools. This is seen as unfair.
Health services
The lack of mental health services in the region impacts on the health of children.
"Currently I have to travel 200 km each way. Earlier this year it was once a week. Now it is once every five weeks. We don't get funding for the simple fact that we are not seeing a psychiatrist but a social worker. The SA Health Commission ruling is that we are not entitled to Isolated Patients Assistance. And why can't someone come into our communities to have a little chat? There is nothing to support them."
Attracting suitable teachers
There is a shortage of skilled and specialist teachers in the area. It can be hard to attract teachers to both temporary and permanent positions.
"It is always a problem. If we advertise we don't always get someone. If we don't get skilled teachers we have limited choices for students in terms of the subjects they do."
"I suspect that in some cases we only get one applicant for the job. Therefore the school will take that applicant because they don't get a choice. And that person may not be fully qualified for what they are required to do. But what else are you going to do?"
Currently a specialist teacher in agriculture at Wudinna is on long service leave. Although they advertised statewide and nationally, the school has been unable to attract a replacement teacher. That particular subject has had to be postponed until the teacher returns from leave.
Teachers do not always have the skills to teach technical subjects at the senior level, such as automotive engineering and computer aided design.
The School Council suggests that there needs to be a system of sharing of teacher expertise between schools. To be effective and viable this system would need to be properly resourced because of the transport and travel costs.
There are few incentives for teachers to come out to rural areas. "They don't get rent assistance as they used. What is the incentive to come out here? Why not get a job in Adelaide?"
The possibility of bonded teacher training was raised. It was suggested bonded teaching training or for a range of professions may be more attractive to country students.
"What's the difference if a student has the choice of paying for their course, taking a HECS or a loan out, or being bonded? They have three choices to get them through college. To me the bonding is much more of an advantage if they either don't want to be jammed into HECS or don't want it or can't afford to in time."
"To me, if you are going to become a teacher you must know that there are schools outside of Adelaide. If you are a teacher you should be expected to go there."
Warramboo primary school is currently trying to attract a Principal. They have 2.6 teachers but it is hard to attract people in leadership roles. "It is very hard to attract a principal to a small school of 20 students and there is not much in the town itself, just a school and post office that is open three days a week in the morning. That's basically it service-wise. It's a beautiful school and the kids very keen and its very well supported by the community, but how do you attract someone to take leadership roles?"
It is essential in a small community that teachers want to participate in the community. If they do not participate in the community it builds up a negative attitude towards the teacher and eventually towards the school. "It makes it very difficult to rebuild a positive attitude and confidence in the school and staff."
Specialist schools
There are currently two specialist schools set up on the Eyre Peninsula: Cleve with an agriculture course and Cowell with an aquaculture course. Students who want to attend these from outside the area, however, do not get Assistance for Isolated Children (AIC) if it is determined that they can access local secondary schooling. This 'bypassing' rule means students miss out the opportunity of these courses.
"My son is going to apply next year to Cleve to study agriculture. Not only is he going there because of the Ag. He actually wants to go on and do agronomy or be an Ag. teacher. Kids like that should have an incentive - especially now that we are lacking specialist teachers - to go and achieve this expertise and bring it back to country areas. At the moment the only assistance he'll get will be rent assistance on Youth Allowance. And he will be staying down there 7 days a week because we cannot afford for him to commute backwards and forwards."
Partnerships 21
"Partnerships 21 [a South Australia Education Department initiative] is a worry for us at Warramboo. We are a small farming community and the call on parents' time to turn into accountants and lawyers and such and to have to work out how to run the school . Who's going to have the time to do it?"
School fees
"It's not a bottomless pit. We really do have to put money in. Parents should be forced to pay at least something. That's a personal opinion. I don't think we'll make up the balance without it."
"Someone has worked out an average that should be applied statewide but that doesn't seem to take into account isolated country schools. We pay a school fee, but then when our children need to go on a trip, our trips are to Whyalla or Port Lincoln, and we have to pay out money for that anyway."
"Personally I disagree with the school fees. Unless it's something that parents want to put into a school to make their school kids' life a bit better. But why should parents and school councils be paying for school computers, be paying for playgrounds, paying for school building? That's where it's going. If they were getting something extra, maybe. But here we have no choice between schools, so to me I disagree. We're not getting the services and we're paying for the little bit we are getting."
Mixed classes/staffing formulae
"Sometimes you get down to having three classes in a group - Years 2, 3 & 4. If a child is a bit slow in learning, we don't have much choice where to go. The teacher is quite stretched having three levels of learning. In metropolitan areas they can get someone to take these children aside. Here you have a volunteer coming in to try to assist the child. There are some advantages to mixed classes, as some kids can do higher study, but for slower kids that's a problem in junior primary."
"The school has X number of kids for X number of teachers. It's a formula. We have to use the same formula that city schools have to work by. In the city schools you have more numbers so you have one teacher for a whole level, whereas in country areas you have to do vertical grouping. This stretches the teachers much further in coping with all the needs of those kids in mixed classes, even with special aide assistance."
Cultural activities
"Sport is seen as the only community cultural activity. If you are in a rural community often kids are disadvantaged in a cultural sense. We think they need to have greater exposure to a diversity of cultural experiences within the school and the community."
"Many students are limited in their educational experiences as often parents have only gone to perhaps Year 10 or 11 at school and this frequently means that the kids don't aspire to any higher level or have higher goals . We think this imposes limitations on children's potential. We need to expand the horizons of the students."
"The children who are not creative in the sporting area often have abilities in music. One family I visit, they are paying out of their own pocket for music lessons for their daughter, and she has a lot of talent. But that family shouldn't be paying. It would be great if there was more available across the whole of the Eyre Peninsula."
Music classes
It is very difficult to study music throughout the Wudinna area. Some students travel to Cummins every week to get a face to face music lesson. Although there are 'Share vision' programs where the students study lessons using a video link-up, there are technical difficulties. The picture drops out and the students have to go back to DUCT (voice and sound telephone link) to finish their lessons.
"How can students learn to play saxophone over a telephone line? Share vision was supposed to solve some of that, but it always drops out."
Students at Warramboo study music through Whyalla. However, the previous time the teacher came out to visit, he arrived too late in the day to visit all the students on time.
"Currently we are also severely limited in our music expertise. We were time sharing a music teacher but because of funding cutbacks we now have students learning musical instruments over the DUCT and it hasn't been successful because they see that there isn't the number of students to run a course."
Students with High Intellectual Potential (SHIP) program
Schools which deliver the SHIP program only exist in Adelaide, which means that high performing students are forced to leave school in Year 11 to go to Adelaide. It was suggested that students could study some of those specialised courses through Open Access.
Information technology
There is a need for adequate technological infrastructure, service and expertise to be able to take advantage of the global environment.
Access to the internet is more costly than in Adelaide because of the STD charges outside the local area.
Educational standards
There are few standards of comparison available to reassure parents that the standard of education at the school are as good as national standards.
Country Areas Program
The funding of education under the Commonwealth Country Areas Program in South Australia has been changed to the Griffiths model. Under the new model, the definition of rural has widened which has the effect of reducing the amount available to existing areas. CAP needs to be administered more equitably.
Buses
"My children leave home at 7.30 in the morning to catch the school bus and some kids don't get off the bus until 5.30 at night. We know that we can't change the times these kids are on the bus but we believe that there should be greater consideration of children's comfort when you are looking at the climate conditions. Last week it was minus 5 degrees in the morning for winter, and we have possibly 2 to 3 weeks of between 40 to 47 degrees heat."
Parents are asking for a reduction of noise levels on the bus, two children to a seat instead of three, adequate space for school bags and air conditioning on the buses. "We had to fight to get off-road tyres on the buses as a trial. Some of the roads we have to drive on are atrocious. Metropolitan people would be surprised we have to do it. Yet we have to fight to get simple tyres, let alone air conditioning!"
Another parent raised bus conditions as a safety issue. The children travel on roads for an hour and a half with big grain trucks passing by and yet the buses do not have seat belts. There are also lots of kangaroos on the roads. Children sit three to a seat when it should only be two to a seat.
There have been a number of attempts to get the Department to put air conditioning on buses in the area, without success.
Although parents have offered to put cooling systems in buses themselves, the department has not guaranteed that the bus will be not be sent to another school in the future.
"We've always had problems in Elliston because they forget that the other half of Elliston is dirt not sea and once you get over the hill, you might as well be in Kyancutta. So we have a bit of credibility lack there. It is regularly over 50 degrees heat."
Many parents travel by car to meet school buses. They get reimbursed 14c per km by the government to do this, yet government employees can get up to 50c per km for their travel. They cannot get school buses extended to meet these children. Some travel over 30km one way to meet a school bus.
Parent involvement
Parents are very involved in the school and their voluntary work is relied on in various capacities, including transporting children to various events. This can put too much pressure on parents.
"Currently we are in real dilemma. We have a planned Year 12 trip to Adelaide to see a performance as part of the English curriculum. Now a parent that had volunteered to take the bus to Adelaide can't go, and we can't find anyone to go, which puts the trip in jeopardy. Parents feel responsible, but should they feel guilty or should this be solved by other agencies? In the city this would not occur."
Education bureaucracy
It can be frustrating for parents on the school council to deal with the education bureaucracy. They feel isolated and powerless when they try to tell the department what they want or are promised changes or work which fails to get done.
School maintenance
Local tradespeople can be overworked and may not have the facilities to deal with particular school maintenance problems. However to hire someone from outside town can take weeks.
Last updated 2 December 2001.
