Education: Focus of rural schools to shift?

A draft rural education policy gazetted last month for comment seeks to provide a framework for the development of ‘context-specific, relevant and sustainable strategies’ for dealing with the ‘challenges’ faced by rural schools – drawing on the strengths of the communities they service, reports Pam Saxby for Legalbrief Policy Watch. This is noting that – despite various ‘pro-poor initiatives aimed at promoting equity in access to primary and secondary education and … improving the quality of education in previously disadvantaged schools’ across the rural-urban divide – rural schools generally remain under-resourced and tend to perform below expectations. According to the draft policy, learner dropout rates are high, and absenteeism widespread.

Against that backdrop, the policy seeks to address the ‘isolation, disconnectedness, shame, distrust … (and) lack of development often associated with rural communities and schools’ by focusing on outcomes that boost self-esteem; facilitate social connectedness; and improve access to ‘functional’ health, social development and library services. As a first step towards achieving this, it proposes that rural schools be ‘rigorously classified’ according to an index informed by indicators that would include location in relation to ‘dispersed communities’; distance from other services and facilities; the ‘physical and cultural environment’; and poverty levels.

With the aim of promoting ‘a sense of place, pride and belonging in the school community’ while also allowing for ‘individual mobility’, it is envisaged that the curriculum would harness local agricultural and environmental knowledge, and that learner support and teaching materials would reflect ‘the rural context’ and be available in all indigenous languages. Agriculture – along with indigenous arts, culture and sporting activities – would be formalised as teaching subjects, and literacy development in a home language emphasised. Given the link between poor learning outcomes and the use of English as the language of learning and teaching, school governing bodies would be encouraged to move away from this practice. It is envisaged that English would be offered only at subject level.

Fundamental to the entire new policy approach would be the recruitment and retention of suitably qualified teachers and their ongoing development – a challenge it is proposed should be addressed by ‘creating a package of teacher incentives that goes beyond finance and includes teacher development, career progression, transport, accommodation, recreation and other essential services’. It is mooted that these incentives should be determined according to the classification of each rural school concerned. In that context, reference is made to establishing ‘teacher villages’ serving educators at a ‘cluster’ of schools in each district. A ‘detailed implementation plan’ informed by the proposed new policy will follow – among other things addressing its financial implications.

No deadline has been set for stakeholder input.