Rural Education

The failure of state and federal governments to adequately fund rural public education has led to a social train wreck in country towns. Over the last thirty years, all levels of government from both sides of politics have withdrawn services from isolated areas, allowed rural economies to decline and attempted to address environmental problems without ensuring workers and their families are not trapped in unemployment in impoverished communities.

Because of the failure of governments, rural students do not have access to the same educational opportunities as their peers in metropolitan areas.

NSW rural public schools are funded and managed by the department as if they were located in metropolitan Sydney. Whilst the Department has a Rural Education policy, there is no real funding, policy or administrative support to ensure our schools can begin to ameliorate rural disadvantage.

NAPLAN data and its reports have highlighted the relationship between student learning and geographical location. Simply, the further you are from Sydney, the lower are student average scores. Over half of the variation in HSC performance in rural towns can be explained by their location and poverty.

Department welfare statistics also highlight the disparity between rural and metropolitan students. The highest long suspension rates are not in southwestern Sydney. They are higher in the New England, Western Region, the Hunter, the North Coast, the Riverina and the Illawarra. As well, the worst attendance rates are in the regions outside of Sydney.

Specific issues that rural schools face are difficulties filling vacancies, lack of access to casual and temporary teachers, concentrations of beginning teachers and inexperienced executive teachers, little access to professional development, inadequate provision of consultants and school counsellors, inappropriate staffing and facility standards in central schools, the costs of travel to excursions and professional learning, lack of access to diagnostic and treatment services, lack of access to cultural and social institutions and poor curriculum choices in small schools. 

With the highest rates of youth suicide, unemployment, alcohol abuse and poor health rural populations have little or no access to mental health services. Children in Finley have to wait three months for a mental health assessment through community health which is 60km away in Deniliquin. To receive ongoing treatment, they must travel 150km to Albury to see a private developmental psychologist. The cost of private treatment ensures many families miss out on essential care.

Education Minister Adrian Piccoli has publicly stated that he wants to close the gap between rural and metropolitan schools. Now is the time that he delivers on this hope.