“That ICPA (Aust) continues to lobby the Minister for Social Services and the Minister for Education to establish a uniform solution, in recognition of the essential role that the home tutor plays in educating students via distance education.”
An introduction of a Distance Education Teaching Allowance (DETA), as financial recognition of the essential work a supervisor/home tutor performs in Distance Education classrooms, would help alleviate the pressure placed on remote families, whose only option is to home-school their children via Distance Education. It is a government requirement under the Distance Education Schools Guidelines that students enrolled in Distance Education schools have appropriate supervision, and these guidelines state that this may be an employee or parent. In many cases, a parent, usually the mother, is forced to forgo paid work on the property, community or outstation where they live, due to the need for them to stay home and teach their children. This in turn strips the family of a second income, and places further financial pressure on families who educate their children via Distance Education. This can amount to a family paying a home tutor between $25,000-$50,000 per year, depending on salary/wage agreements.
On top of the wage a home tutor is paid, in many cases, home tutors are also living with the family, and have all food, board and other sundry expenses such as internet, paid by the family as part of their wage package. If the family employs a home tutor to deliver Distance Education lessons and provide support and supervision, the family is effectively paying award wages for a child to receive a public education.
We would like to suggest that DETA be incorporated into the existing AIC framework. If a family is eligible for AIC, it is extremely likely that they would also be eligible for DETA, and combining DETA into the AIC would streamline the application process.
