Education
Rural and regional schools are struggling, but what can be done?
From unsustainable workloads for principals and teachers to absenteeism and mental health concerns among students, the state education inquiry revealed some points of concern.
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In mid-October, Victorian parliament was presented with the report from an inquiry into the state education system.
The final report has over 300 pages of statistics, anecdotes, recommendations and submissions, but what does it say about regional and rural schools?
Of the 54 recommendations, three specifically mention rural and regional students.
- Recommendation 26: That the Victorian Government implement the recommendations of the 2019 Expert Advisory Panel for Rural and Regional Students.
- Recommendation 34: That the Department of Education conduct a review into the effectiveness of the Targeted Financial Incentives program in achieving the objectives of recruiting new teachers to rural and regional areas.
- Recommendation 40: That the Victorian Government provide additional resources related to the delivery of the Mental Health Menu, so that all schools, particularly those in rural and regional areas or with complex communities and students, can access programs that meet the needs of their students.
The report has seven subheadings, with the first two being an introduction and an overview.
The others are ‘learning outcomes’, ‘targeted supports’, ‘teaching workforce’, ‘student wellbeing’ and ‘funding state schools’.
Learning outcomes
The report concluded that NAPLAN results showed disparities between different cohorts, including rural and regional students and Koorie students, with socio-economic status and other factors also having an influence.
The graph also highlighted that VET subjects were less accessible to regional and rural students, making their path to the workforce more challenging.
As previously reported by The News, absenteeism was a major concern for regional schools, and the inquiry report backed up suspicions with statistics.
Year 12 completion rates for inner regional and outer regional were significantly lower than those in major cities.
Males in inner regional and outer regional had the lowest completion rate of Year 12, of 68.2 per cent and 68.9 per cent, respectively.
Targeted supports
The Victorian Council of Social Service highlighted a broad range of “well‑established factors that are associated with poorer student outcomes”, which included rural and regional students.
The report said the Department of Education had recently implemented significant reform to vocational and applied learning following the 2020 review into vocational and applied learning pathways in senior secondary schools.
One of the key elements was to provide free VET subjects, essential VET materials and support for VET‑related transport for students in regional and rural areas
The report didn’t have any evidence about whether the reform had improved access to career paths.
Section 4.5.1 was dedicated to supporting place‑based vocational education and training in rural areas.
“These developments were generally welcomed by stakeholders,” the report said.
“However, the practicality of delivering on policies are hampered by lack of resources or access to resources caused by geographical distance from metropolitan centres.
“These limitations are especially felt by regional and rural schools and student cohorts.”
Section 4.6 highlighted the specific struggles of rural and regional students.
“A focus of this Inquiry are disparities in learning outcomes correlated with geographic and socio‑economic disadvantage,” the report said.
“The Committee heard from numerous stakeholders of the distinct challenges regional and especially rural schools face in achieving effective learning outcomes.”
The challenges included:
- Difficulty attracting and retaining experienced teachers.
- Distance from key services and opportunities provided only in Melbourne.
- Higher levels of low socio‑economic families and backgrounds.
- Socio-economic status of rural communities limiting the aspirations of rural students, making it challenging to pursue opportunities outside their local towns.
- Students not reaching their full potential as they do not want to add to their family’s financial burden by moving away to attend university or TAFE.
Teaching workforce
In the report, it said that in rural settings, it was not only schools struggling to attract workers: hospitals, aged-care and other sectors were in a similar situation.
“Some stakeholders said teacher shortage issues are worse than reflected in official data because schools devise strategies to cope on a day‑to‑day basis that are not reflected in the vacancy and application data,” the report said.
“One teacher explained the range of measures employed at a rural eastern Victorian school.”
The measures include:
- Requiring assistant principals and principal, who are contracted to have no face‑to‑face teaching time, to be in classrooms.
- Increasing the number of weekly sessions teachers are required to teach.
- Refusing leave‑without‑pay, such as to younger teachers who often take a year to go travelling.
- Refusing requests of senior staff to reduce workloads from five to four or three days per week.
Due to the workforce shortage, the government is running the Pre‑Service Teacher Placement Grants Program, funded in 2023 to the end of 2025.
The rates are: $140 a day, for placements in specialist schools; $290 a day, for placements in regional schools; and $420 a day, for placements in rural schools.
Another measure rural and regional school are taking is increasing reliance on ‘permission to teach’ candidates to fill roles.
“Stakeholders in rural and regional areas have found the initiative positive, especially for helping to find staff to conduct the Tutor Learning Initiative,” the report said.
“A structural barrier to the ‘permission to teach’ registration is that trainee teachers are required to complete their studies within three years of being granted the registration to attain full teacher registration.
“This requirement can make it difficult for rural schools to appoint permission to teach‑registered teachers, as it often requires them to take time off to travel back to Melbourne to complete their studies.”
Generally, the main concern in the report is that the government has several incentives for teachers to start at rural schools; however, there’s been “few evaluations on the effectiveness of financial incentives in attracting teachers to rural areas in the long term”.
There’s also growing concern about the housing crisis, and there have been several teachers decline positions in rural areas due to lack of housing.
Student wellbeing
The report pointed out a 10 per cent additional loading for rural and regional schools, on the Victorian Government’s mental health fund.
The report stated that schools in rural and regional areas were experiencing challenges accessing and implementing supports from the government’s ‘Mental Health Menu’.
“The Great Southern Coast Youth Strategy Advocacy Group told the Committee that there are a ‘lack of options located in the country for rural schools in the Mental Health Menu’,” the report said.
Finding 21 of the inquiry was that the success of the Department of Education’s mental health and wellbeing initiatives was challenged by a lack of qualified professionals, particularly in rural and regional areas.
Funding state schools
The report discussed the funding that the government provided based on several factors, including rural status.
However, it suggested that the government should reassess the boundaries for rural and regional funding.
“Advocates for rural schools said the classification used to provide mobility and equity funding for regional and rural schools needs revising,” the report said.
The Victorian Government’s inquiry into state education identified several areas in which rural and regional areas were disadvantaged.
The government has six months or until April 15, 2025 to respond to the report.
To access the full report and all public submissions, head to parliament.vic.gov.au/stateeducationinquiry
Cadet Journalist