“That ICPA (Aust) asks the Minister for Social Services to provide funding for a Distance Education Supervisors Subsidy (DESS) to be paid per term to eligible families for safely and actively supervising students in a home classroom.”
Currently, children in a distance education home classroom are supervised by a governess (supervisor), parent, or grandparent and there is currently no financial assistance in this supervision. This having many social, emotional and financial impacts on rural and remote families. Some of these factors include:
• Partners working solo in roles that for safely require two people
• Takes a secondary income from a family home which is much needed, as remote families face higher cost of living due to location
• Mothers who have no other option but teach their own children are feeling the emotional and family strain. Teaching your children requires fulltime supervision from 8am-4pm, 5 days a week, often they are required to work for the farm before and after school hours creating 1214hr days
• Without financial help, retaining and enticing workforce in remote areas is hard as often families will move jobs and areas once the children are school aged as it is cheaper for their children to attend school in a town.
When children are attending online lessons with a teacher, it is unsatisfactory to think that the teacher on the other end of the computer hundreds of kilometres away is able to supervise children safely and effectively, they still require supervision. How is a teacher on the other end able to deal with the following situations:
• Medical emergencies
• Behavioural issues
• Poor concentration
In Australia all children are said to be able to access a free public education, but for remote students/families studying via public distance education is not true. Having a governess (supervisor) is an expense and to take a family member out of the work force is not free of financial impacts. We implore the federal and state governments to work towards an outcome suitable for each state.
