An announcement by the Bligh government in 2011 that year 7 students would move into secondary schools from 2015 spelled disaster for rural parents.

Mothers and fathers now face the tough decision of sending their children away at the age of 11 or giving up their careers to help with home schooling.

The Newman government said it recognised the changes would have an impact on rural and remote families, and has since offered to increase the Living away from Home Allowance, will establish a reference group to investigate the funding needed for boarding schools to deal with extra demand, increase elearning options for state schools and review the educational needs of geographically isolated families. 

However, these concessions haven’t stopped North West communities from asking their representatives to find alternatives to keep their kids at home. 

SUCCESS FOR THE BUSH

The McKinlay Shire Council set the bar for other shrinking outback towns after it managed to strike a three year deal with the Education Department to deliver years 7 and 8 at the Julia Creek State School through Mount Isa’s School of the Air program. 

The distance education program will cost around $10 000 a child – $5000 each after government subsidies – and use the existing year 7 classroom that would have been left vacant after the transition.

McKinlay Mayor Belinda Murphy said two students would enter the program next year while another eight would benefit from it by 2016.

Cr Murphy said it wasn’t local government’s job to deliver education, but said councils were responsible for getting the best possible services for its community. 

“We had a parent approach us to ask what we were doing about year 7, so 18 months ago we held a community meeting with the parents,” she said. “We had 40 parents show up and they all wanted us to do something.

“It’s up to Local Government to engage the community and find out what they want.”

FRESH BATTLE

The Carpentaria Shire Council’s gulf community of Karumba is at risk of losing five more children, and their families, when the transition starts next year. 

Carpentaria Mayor Fred Pascoe said parents in Karumba were looking at how they could follow McKinlay’s lead and secure the use of their state school’s year 7 classroom for Mount Isa School of the Air lessons.  Cr Pascoe said parents and the council were also working together to cover the cost of a tutor – a cost most were willing to pay to keep their families together in town. 

“I take my hat off to Belinda Murphy, she wouldn’t take no for an answer, her and her council, and it’s proven to us if you stand up and scream loud enough you can get government support,” he said. 

“We have to get on the front foot with this. The end of this year is D-day for these families and they want to make their decision as soon as possible.

“Uprooting families and moving house is a big decision so working it out in weeks rather than months will help parents plan.”

Cr Pascoe said the government was well aware of his concerns, as well as those from Boulia, McKinlay and Etheridge Shires. “It’s unfortunate when they make decisions like this because they don’t think about families in the outback,” she said.

“We’ve all forwarded our opinions on to government and said it’s a stupid idea.”

STATE SOLUTIONS

STATE Member for Mount Isa Rob Katter said the government should exempt rural schools from the transition or subsidise McKinlay’s model so parents were paying costs on par with inner-city state schooling tuition.

Mr Katter said boarding schools cost rural families up to $30,000 a child a year in some cases and the transition would add another year would just extend the financial strain. He said this figure was reduced by government subsidies, but not enough to make education affordable for rural and remote families. 

Mr Katter thanked Education Minister John-Paul Langbroek for working out a deal with the McKinlay Shire, despite admitting he thought it was an acknowledgement of the transition’s failure in bush.

“It’s hard for me not to be fairly hostile about this issue – I’ve experienced mothers crying on the phone saying how inequitable it is and it’s across a broad spectrum,” he said.