THE state government is hopeful that a newly-launched Country Education Strategy will improve the quality of education for country school students.
Offering students a broader range of subjects, providing better business support so principals can focus more time on learning outcomes, broadening speech pathology and psychology services in country locations and working with SA universities to offer more regional placements to student teachers are among the goals of SA's first ever strategy dedicated to country education.
Fueled by $15 million across the first three years, Education Minister John Gardner said the strategy aimed to improve access to support services and education opportunities for country students to ensure they received a world-class education.
The strategy also aims to remove some of the barriers to attracting and retaining staff, while country perspectives will be given greater prominence in the development and delivery of Department of Education programs and policies.
"Our state's great size and regional diversity is a strength, but it does present challenges to our education system that require special focus," Mr Gardner said.
"The development of the Country Education Strategy will bring greater energy to addressing some of the underlying issues that have led to regional students sometimes not doing as well as those in the city, according to key measures including literacy, numeracy and SACE completion."
As part of the plan, Department of Education policy director Luke Fraser said student teachers' travel and accommodation costs, as well as any loss of income from another job, would be covered during country placements.
"Both attraction and retention of quality teachers that are fit for purpose is challenging," he said.
"Retention of teachers is important for having stability within a given school or preschool to support student engagement, relationships with parents and their effectiveness as educators over time. Our strategy recognises this and invests in long term initiatives to tackle this challenge."
To offer country student a broader range of subjects, the department will encourage and support schools to work collaboratively to provide a broad curriculum offering for students across a given regional area.
"We will also be investing in digital solutions to create learning flexibility, and providing curated curriculum resources to support our teachers," Mr Fraser said.
Country principals will be able to focus on their core duties under the new plan, with Mr Fraser saying the department would be investing further in business support, ICT technology, allied health support and temporary relief teachers to allow leaders to focus on their priorities.
The strategy was developed with input from regional principals and students, including representatives from the Rural Youth Ambassador Program, which will receive further investment under the new initiative.
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