That ICPA (Aust) support the formation of a Distance Education Supervision subsidy (name is not important) to assist geographically isolated families whose only choice for their children is Distance Education.
The ICPA has been advocating for many many years for an allowance or subsidy to support Geographically Isolated families with the ongoing costs of Distance Education. This has been occurring at State and Federal levels of ICPA. Unfortunately with little traction and being bounced between state and federal governments.
Distance education enrolment – guidelines and procedures (NT Government Publication)
“ All distance education enrolments require children and young people to:
• meet the requirements for enrolment in an NT Government school as detailed in the Enrolment procedures
• be enrolled for a minimum of one semester for preschool to year 9 enrolment, and by negotiation for years 10 to 12
• have access to a telephone, computer and the internet.
Provision of information technology equipment may be facilitated by the department
• be provided with an appropriate learning space and environment. This includes a well-lit, ventilated space, absence of unwanted distractions to learning, and access to learning materials and resources
• be suitably supervised and supported by an adult each school day to complete their learning, including any requirement to attend the distance education centre or another place.
Division 2 of the NT Education Act 2015 states:
Cost of Government school education 75 Government school education to be free
(1) This section applies in relation to a student:
(a) whose usual place of residence is in the Territory; and
(b) who is an Australian citizen or permanent resident in Australia or a child of such a citizen or resident; and
(c) who is enrolled in a Government school.
(2) The cost of providing the following at the Government school to the student must be met by the Territory:
(a) instruction that forms part of the program that is prescribed by regulation (the standard curriculum program);
(b) any materials or administrative or other services or facilities provided as part of the standard curriculum program.”
With this legislation and policy in mind, consider the following. Most mothers are able to return to work when their children start school, but it is mostly the mothers of Geographically Isolated Families are either unable to work, or have an increased workload due to the supervision responsibilities required by the enrolment policies for Distance Education which requires that students undertaking Distance Education have adequate supervision in the classroom and an appropriate space or the child to undertake their learning, free of distractions etc. (see above)
The choices for these DE families are:
One parent (usually the mother) must either forgo an income or time working in the business to supervise the children in the classroom.
The family or the employers of the family engage a home tutor – firstly recruiting and then providing a salary or day rate for this employee.
Even when the family or business has employed a home tutor, one parent carries an increased workload by taking on the management of the home tutor and classroom activities. Its never a simple drop and go solution like those familiar to non-GI families.
Furthermore, due to the isolation, the family or the remote businesses who employ these families need to house and feed their home tutors. All of which comes at a cost to the private business and not to the government. The costs vary between families but no matter the circumstance, huge cost or sacrifices are made by our GI families in pursuit of a government funded education, which for all Territorians – is supposed to be “FREE”.
Further to these ongoing costs, there is the cost of the initial setup of an appropriate study environment for the students, desks, chairs and the installation of the appropriate internet connection being the very bare minimum. Laptops and ICT equipment are available for hire and purchase from the school, still at a further cost to the family. The back to school voucher scheme does subsidise the cost but at $200 per year, this amount doesn’t really touch the sides of the initial set up or ongoing replenishment of resources required.
All of these costs do not even take into account the face to face events that are optional but also integral for the children's social and emotional learning, which for those attending Katherine School of the Air comes in at approx. $2,000 + per term if you factor in the cost of accommodating a family for the time in town, travel, food for the family for the week, the potential loss of income for the week that one caregiver has to be away from the business for. The subsidy for attending an in school event is approx. $100 per student per event. Although we are thankful for it, this wouldn’t even cover the cost of the fuel to attend these events.
The AIC and NT Student Assistance Scheme does allow some relief but does not even come close to covering the total cost of education for those GI families.
