Regional education fails kids
EVERY year about 30,000 regional Queensland students do not finish high school.
Experts say this figure is the main reason regions are slipping further behind Brisbane in the livability stakes.
In Brisbane, 81 per cent of students get to the end of Year 12. No regional city gets to 70 per cent completion and several towns barely register a 50 per cent completion rate.
With the state election under way, we are making the fate of our young people the No. 1 priority. Today we launch our Fair Go For Our Kids campaign aimed at forcing politicians to close the gaps.
Education experts say there are solutions — more specialist teachers in regional areas and for existing teachers to be given the chance to upskill to minimise the risks of teaching out of their field of expertise.
The need is clear: Brisbane’s completion rate is significantly higher than every regional city in Queensland.
Australian Bureau of Statistics data reveals 68 per cent of Townsville students finished Year 12 in 2016, with just 60 per cent finishing in Mackay and 57 per cent in Cairns.
Similarly, fewer regional school leavers go on to study at university than in Brisbane.
Torrens University’s Social Atlas of Australia shows 46 per cent of Brisbane 17- year- olds are enrolled in higher education. In regional cities that number is between 20 per cent and 33 per cent.
Country Education Foundation of Australia CEO Wendy Cohen said regional teachers were perfectly positioned to help students but may not have the time to do it.
“Country students deserve to have every opportunity to participate in the workforce in any capacity they wish and not have boundaries and conditions placed on them just because of their postcode,” Ms Cohen said.
“Sometimes their teachers are the very best people to assess the entire spectrum of opportunities and inspire their students to have courage and vision around their choices. Anecdotally at least, I’m not sure that teachers have the time or the knowledge to help students in this way.”
Regional Universities Network CEO Caroline Perkins said low staffing meant teachers at regional high schools were often forced to teach subjects they were not experts in.
“There is a huge educational disadvantage in regional areas. It’s a very serious and significant problem,” she said. “We need to be able to encourage teachers in regional schools who might be teaching science or maths, despite not being trained in that, to do refresher courses. That’s something the State Government can play a big part in.”
Dr Perkins said regional economies were changing with demand growing for a university education.
“The traditional regional economy just didn’t have the number of jobs in the professions that needed a degree. That’s changing,” she said.
But even if a regional school leaver goes to university, they are less likely to finish their degree than a city student. Federal Government statistics show dropout rates are lower in the three Brisbane- based universities, University of Queensland, Griffith University and Queensland University of Technology, than in the four regionally based universities.
Dr Perkins said this was often due to financial pressures on students who had to move to study.
Queensland Secondary Principals’ Association president Andrew Pierpoint said a “culture change” was needed in some regional areas to encourage more students to finish school.