“That ICPA QLD lobbies the DoE and other relevant departments to provide financial assistance for Rural and Remote students attending Band 5-7 schools, who are selected to represent their districts and regions in school sport, to assist with covering some of the costs associated with travel and accommodation to attend these events.”
Rural and Remote students who are selected for District and Regional school sports need to travel vast distances to attend training and events associated with the sport. For some families it is completely unaffordable and therefore denying an opportunity for their student to succeed in sport. The current young athletes travel subsidy states that eligible athletes and officials can apply for 1 eligible event at each tier, once every 2 calendar years. The subsidy amount is state or state school events $200, national, or national school events $400, and international events $600. For rural and remote families $200 is most likely only going to cover the cost of a one-way trip to the first event. Some families are travelling up to 10,000km in order to access school sport events.
We note that the Emerging Athletes Pathway program is underway. Unfortunately for Rural and Remote students it would only be on the rare occasion that a student would be eligible for such a program given the challenges of accessing preliminary events that would provide the student with an opportunity to reach the skill level required to be considered as an emerging athlete.
