That ICPA (Aust) asks the Minister for Social Services to review the guidelines for approving ‘Limited Program Schools’ to make the program more effective for rural and remote students.
The current program guidelines and assessment process is:
(1) The Australian Government's Assistance for Isolated Children (AIC) Scheme is administered by guidelines published by Services Australia - Centrelink.
Services Australia defines a limited program school in the AIC Guidelines as:
• primary schools where the syllabus and teaching arrangements are specifically geared to meet particular requirements and may be considered limited compared to the general curriculum of the state or territory.
• secondary schools that either:
- do not offer a full range of years or grades; or
- do not provide adequate facilities or programs to enable a student to gain a Year 12 certificate or tertiary entrance score; or
- have a syllabus and teaching arrangements that are specifically geared to meet the needs of a particular student and may be considered limited compared to the general curriculum of the state or territory.
(2) Each year Services Australia writes to the State Departments of Education and provides the definition of a Limited Program School and requests the department provide a list of schools that meets their criteria by November.
Services Australia uses this list to determine if a student would to be eligible for the Assistance for Isolated Children Scheme and ABSTUDY Allowances operated through Centre link.
a) Schools do not apply to be included in the list.
b) For each year, from 2017-2021, two schools in New South Wales have been identified as meeting Services Australia's definition of a Limited Program School.
A limited school should also be assessed according to the syllabus’s offered and the health and wellbeing of the students attending the rural and remote school. Video conferencing should not be considered the acceptable way of offering a subject. If you are the only student in the class doing a subject it should not be accepted as offering the subject and points should be awarded under the limited program schools. That student should therefore be eligible for the entitlements under the Limited Program Schools.
What a limited program school is:
Limited program schools either don’t:
• offer all year levels or grades
• have facilities or programs for students to get a Year 12 certificate or an Australian Tertiary Admission Rank.
The outcomes to holding this review would be:
• Review all guidelines/criteria of the program • make the program more workable – these schools are already limited in what they offer
• make the program more inclusive for students who have a disability
• assist rural and remote students who have no other options for gaining an education in their secondary years.
