Campus Review Volume 28 - Issue 5 | May 2018 | Seite 7

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Boosting student
success in the bush
Report offers solutions
for improving academic
achievement in rural areas.
By Loren Smith
A
newly published report on fixing the
city/rural education gap contains no
“silver bullet” solutions, Education
Minister Simon Birmingham has said.
Commissioned in March last year, the
Independent Review into Regional, Rural
and Remote Education – Final Report
contains Dr John Halsey’s evidence-
based thoughts on how to lift student
achievement in the bush. The Flinders
University emeritus professor, and former
school teacher and principal, lists 11
recommendations that revolve around
four priorities:
• establishing a task force or national
commissioner for regional, rural and
remote education
• research into school leadership,
teaching, curriculum and assessment
• addressing information communication
and technology needs
• improving transitions into and out
of school.
Recommendations include enhanced
pay and conditions for teachers who
work in remote areas, the possible
creation of “turn around teams” consisting
of a principal, curriculum leader and
business manager to aid constantly
underperforming schools, and the
expansion of mentorship for inexperienced
education leaders.
The chief executive of the Association
of Heads of Independent Schools of
Australia, Beth Blackwood, said the main
reported factor negatively affecting
schooling in regional and remote areas
was difficulty in recruiting teachers,
followed by depressed local economic
conditions.
Yet the report isn’t solely school-centric.
Two of the recommendations relate to
tertiary study: further support for students
in the transition from school to training and
higher education, and extending dual VET/
higher education programs and two-year
associate degrees.
“TAFE has to be put back into the regions,
closer to people, places and the heartland
of much of Australia’s productivity,” the
report says.
TAFE Directors Australia chief executive
Craig Robertson was very pleased with
this proposal.
“The presence of TAFE in these areas is
much more than a training provider,” he said.
“It is part of a network that enables
people to develop skills, employment
and the entrepreneurial ability to support
industry and communities.
“When TAFE is starved of funding and
resources, it has a disproportionate effect in
these regions.”
While the Regional Universities
Network (RUN) wholeheartedly supports
the report’s suggestions, peak body
Universities Australia used its mention
of increased university participation by
regional students to advocate for the
demand-driven system.
“UA commends Dr Halsey on putting
forward further policy ideas to consolidate
the gains of the past decade and
overcome continuing regional barriers
to participation,” chief executive Belinda
Robinson said.
Not only do around a third of country
students not complete high school, a
report released last year found that the
proportion of regional Australian s aged
15–24 who are not studying or at work is
44 per cent higher in country areas than
in the city.
The government has indicated it
will respond to the report in due course.  ■
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