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.