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.
