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."
