The Importance Of Isolation Of Communities In Australia

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All students deserve to receive equal education opportunity. However, some students face other life factors which include, but are not limited to, isolation, limited access to resources, in addition, socio-economic status. This means that some students may have to work harder to access their academic opportunities.

Isolation of communities in Australia is an issue for the education of students. Australia is such a large country that is so sparsely populated. Therefore, some communities in very remote areas often have small populations which can have more limited academic funding available to schools. A lot of these communities find it extremely hard to attract and retain good quality educators. Most isolated towns have less income available …show more content…

Dr. Lietz (Lietz, 2015) said “schools that are further away from the major centres find it harder to access resources even in the digital age “and that “one of the reporting variables is always the location of schools in rural and remote areas perform at lower levels.” (Lietz, 2015, pp.18/19). The students in these remote areas need to be learning the same technological advances at the same speed, equal to the education curriculum in other countries around the world. This is a similar position as Dr. Sara Glover of the Mitchel Institute who says “Education needs to be more future-oriented, and, more than ever, we need our education system to foster capable, curious, resilient and adaptable young people” (2015). Rupert Murdoch (2008), touches on the need for teachers and schools to be made accountable for the performances of students, teachers, and schools. “Evidence suggests that providing student teachers with practicum placements in rural schools has a positive impact on their attitudes toward living in rural communities. Strategies that encourage students to train in rural areas may improve recruitment and retention of quality teachers in these areas”, NSW Department of Education and Communities …show more content…

A lot of these communities find it extremely hard to attract and retain good quality educators. It seems that remote or isolated areas also have high unemployment amongst the community, which means these communities contend with remoteness, low-income, fewer students and fewer resources. Doolan and Zimmer, E (2002) touch on the issues with often a small population in the community and lower income workers like the farm hands, country workers, shearers, and unemployed who are generally paid less than their counterparts in the city make the abilities to raise extra funds for the school via the community is very limited. These communities need resources to attract teachers who are prepared to live in the area. Without the services, it will become extremely hard to attract these teachers to the communities in rural and isolated areas of Australia. A report stated that “Socioeconomically disadvantaged students attend fewer hours of early childhood education, have lower attendance at school, are more likely to leave school early, and are less likely to go to university”. Lamb, S, Jackson, J, Walstab, A and Huo, S (2015). There is an alarming rate of students from low socio-economic backgrounds who drop out of the higher education. They often start unprepared for the leap to higher

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