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Rural and Remote Education - WA

Rural

and Remote Education - WA

Extracts from submissions

Submissions on education

funding

A. Brooker,

Geraldton Grammar School, WA

"The Educational

Resources Index on which government funding is based is dependent on fees

charged. For this reason rural schools have the same income as their city

counterparts. However, given the generally higher prices of goods and

services, schools can buy less for their dollar. Equity suggests that

whatever the system is used to assess a schools recurrent government grants

the school's remoteness should be a factor. In this respect a change from

using the Educational Resources Index to Socio Economic Status may go

part of the way towards redressing the balance."

Astra Warren,

Lesmurdie, WA

"I am a qualified

teacher with 40 years experience.now semi retired. Over the past 8 years

I have been taking tutor positions on stations in the Gascoyne-Murchison

area of Western Australia.

"I have a constant

stream of enquires seeking my help. My particular interest is remedial

English an attitude problems, but since I am a self funded retiree and

most stations are on a limited budget, I can only afford to take two or

three positions each year. The REVISE voluntary scheme is excellent in

its way, but does not address deeper problems which should have been solved

years earlier.

"My suggestion is

a funding initiative to pay normal salary rates to itinerant teachers

of experience prepared to be residential in the country, working within

the normal correspondence lessons, alongside School of the Air. Six weeks

would be my estimate of a minimum effective period, stretching to 1 or

2 terms if necessary."

Last

updated 2 December 2001.