Education in remote and complex environments

THE House Standing Committee on Employment, Education and Training has launched an inquiry into the education of students in remote and complex environments.

Committee chair, Andrew Laming MP, said the inquiry would examine the performance of the Australian education system in remote and regional areas, its territories and in complex circumstances like drought and post-natural disaster.

"The committee looks forward to examining how Education meets the learning needs of students and how barriers in the education journey are overcome," Mr Laming said.

Areas of interest include:

• small remote schools; particularly in challenging areas like the tri-state area of central Australia;
• career counselling of remote students and means of connecting them to further education or local employment;
• challenges faced by regional schooling providers and initiatives in place;
• how families of vulnerable young children can access, enrol and remain in early learning, and the collaboration between early and primary education;
• the performance and monitoring of those in home schooling to maintain national minimum standards; and
• access and support to deliver the Australian Curriculum (including STEM) in a flexible way, to meet local learning needs and interests of remote students, including examples of innovative ways in which the curriculum is being delivered in remote schools.

Submissions to the inquiry are now open.

The committee said it welcomed advice and suggestions from the public on potential locations for public hearings to be held in 2020.

ends