Each year, as part of the Commissioner’s Annual Report, the Commissioner provides the Minister for Education with a list of key issues for the government’s consideration.
On this page:
Early Childhood Education and Care
Issue for Consideration 1
To further efforts to build a truly universal early childhood education and care system, the Australian Government should adopt an early childhood education and care universal service obligation. Under this obligation, the Australian Government would be responsible for ensuring that early childhood education and care services are accessible to all children in regional, rural and remote Australia.
Issue for Consideration 2
To improve access to early childhood education and care for people in regional, rural and remote communities, increase support for a greater number of flexible delivery models, including consideration of which models would be best placed for different levels of remoteness, and how secure ongoing funding can be delivered. This may include:
- Working with states and territories to support greater use of in-venue Family Day Care in the regions
- Increasing the current legislative in-venue Family Day Care educator limits to allow two approved Family Day Care educators to care for no more than 14 children
- Allowing for an In Home Care educator to care for children from more than one family at the same time in remote areas
- Providing greater support for the delivery of online preschool education combined with in person care for remote and geographically isolated children
- Improving recognition of and expanding access to mobile childcare services, including mobile preschools.
Issue for Consideration 3
Design and implement a system to provide funding for operational costs to ensure the sustainability of early childhood education and care services in thin markets in regional, rural or remote areas, where demand is not always sufficient to support a service.
Issue for Consideration 4
Extend the Assistance for Isolated Children – Distance Education allowance to 3–4 year-olds undertaking an approved pre-compulsory distance education program to reduce the financial burden for remote families who have no option other than to deliver the preschool program themselves.
Issue for Consideration 5
Acknowledging the important role Family Day Care plays in early childhood education and care delivery in regional, rural and remote areas and the need to increase the early childhood education and care workforce, the Australian Government should develop and implement a Family Day Care traineeship program
School Education
Issue for Consideration 6
States and territories to consider, through the Education Ministers Meeting, the transport needs of regional, rural and remote students to ensure access to appropriate and timely school bus services.
Issue for Consideration 7
Increase the Assistance for Isolated Children (AIC) Basic Boarding Allowance to ease financial pressures for geographically isolated families caused by boarding fees.
Issue for Consideration 8
In recognition of the significant cost burden of boarding for regional, rural and remote families who often have no choice but to send their children to boarding school, expand the Commonwealth Regional Scholarship program to support a greater number of eligible regional, rural and remote students attending boarding school.
Issue for Consideration 9
Demand-driven funding should be implemented for boarding school scholarships for First Nations students from regional, rural and remote areas, to ensure that all those students living in First Nations communities, where there is either no secondary school or the local school cannot meet their educational needs, can access secondary education.
Issue for Consideration 10
In recognition of the critical role of geographically isolated classroom supervisors, fund a program to support these supervisors educating geographically isolated students via distance education where there are no alternatives.
Issue for Consideration 11
To alleviate the workload of regional, rural and remote principals, teachers and other school staff, and to improve access to allied health services for students, pilot and evaluate a program for a School and Allied Health Services Regional Coordinator role to coordinate student access to these services.
Issue for Consideration 12
Improve secondary education outcomes, and tertiary pathways, for regional, rural and remote secondary students by implementing more structured access to Regional University Study Hubs for secondary students where appropriate and supported by community needs.
Issue for Consideration 13
Acknowledging the importance of timely and relevant careers advice to students across all life stages, and its pivotal role in nurturing aspiration and building confidence and improving tertiary education attainment, improve careers advice through measures including, but not limited to:
- undertaking a national comprehensive assessment to investigate the accessibility, effectiveness and quality of current careers advice delivery, including identifying good practices
- developing a consistent national framework for careers advice across all life stages.
Issue for Consideration 14
Re-establish an online careers advice service, that builds on the School Leavers Information Service which was in place during the COVID pandemic, to enhance access to high quality careers advice for regional, rural and remote students and career changers.
Issue for Consideration 15
Establish a national Rural Youth Ambassadors program to enhance education outcomes in the regions by nurturing the aspirations and strengthening the leadership skills of regional, rural and remote young people.
Tertiary Education
Issue for Consideration 16
Expand access to, and boost attainment of, tertiary education qualifications for people from regional, rural and remote areas by undertaking a review of the regional, rural and remote Independent Youth Allowance eligibility criteria and making necessary adjustments to ensure that regional, rural and remote students who have no choice but to relocate for tertiary study are appropriately financially supported to do so.
Issue for Consideration 17
Improve uptake of the Tertiary Access Payment (TAP) by providing students with the financial support, or at least confirmation that the payment will be made upon verification of their tertiary study enrolment after the census date, prior to relocation rather than after they commence their studies.
Issue for Consideration 18
Extend the eligibility for the Tertiary Access Payment (TAP) to include regional, rural and remote Australian Apprentices who must relocate from their place of residence to undertake their apprenticeship.
Issue for Consideration 19
Expand access to, and boost attainment of, higher education by providing Government funding for first year on-campus accommodation costs for regional, rural and remote students who relocate and reside on a regional university campus.
Issue for Consideration 20
To reward and recognise regional universities and regional university campuses for their unique role in delivering strong education outcomes for regional students, engagement with and support for regional communities, and contribution to regional economic development, the Australian Tertiary Education Commission should implement regional university and regional campus impact measures as part of the mission-based compacts process.
Issue for Consideration 21
To enable higher education access for regional students, sustainable growth for regional universities, and to deliver the regional workforce needed, remove ‘hard caps’ on enrolments from all regionally headquartered universities.
Issue for Consideration 22
To enable regional communities to continue to have access to high quality university education, the Australian Tertiary Education Commission and Government should ensure the regional loading component of the Needs-based funding system accounts for the true cost of delivering higher education in the regions and supporting regional students to succeed.
Issue for Consideration 23
Establish a dedicated Regional Higher Education Infrastructure Fund to address the critical shortfall in funding available for current and future infrastructure requirements at regional universities, and to ensure regional universities have the facilities to provide a quality student experience, to support tertiary education access and attainment, and to contribute socially and economically to their regional communities.
First Nations Education
Issue for Consideration 24
Establish a First Nations Education Commissioner to improve education outcomes for First Nations people by working with First Nations education sector stakeholders and providing advice to the Australian Government on First Nations education.
Issue for Consideration 25
Elevate First Nations assistant teachers to ‘partner’ teachers to value the importance of their cultural knowledge and expertise, and to support a sustainable workforce in First Nations communities.
Issue for Consideration 26
Create a new program in First Nations communities to establish Distance Assistance Study Hubs (DASHs) to support On Country distance education learning for First Nations students, potentially commencing through a pilot, based on the principles on the Regional University Study Hubs program.
Issue for Consideration 27
In collaboration with a remote First Nations community, design and pilot a program to support First Nations students to complete their nursing education On Country.
Cross-sector
Issue for Consideration 28
Develop and implement a cross-portfolio National Rural Veterinary Workforce Strategy to address the critical veterinary workforce shortage in regional, rural and remote Australia. The National Rural Veterinary Workforce Strategy may include, but not be limited to, education measures including:
- providing HELP fee relief to encourage early career veterinarians to work in rural areas
- extending the eligibility of the Commonwealth Prac Payment to include veterinary science students
- supplementing university admissions processes to ensure places for students with a commitment to regional, rural and remote practice
- increasing Commonwealth funding to universities delivering veterinary degrees focussed on large animal and rural practice and/or end to end training in regional, rural and remote areas
- developing a network of rural veterinary practices and/or clinical training facilities that can provide teaching in collaboration with veterinary schools and the development of a rural-specific veterinary training pathway.
Issue for Consideration 29
Ensure all Australian, state and territory government departments consider, and where relevant adopt, Jobs and Skills Australia’s final ‘10 Design Principles for the Jobs and Skills System in Regional Australia’ to inform decision-making on regional, rural and remote policies and programs.
Proposal for consideration
Establish a ‘Regional Education Collaborate and Connect’ program to facilitate strong and sustainable connections between regional, rural and remote education providers, industry and community to:
nurture the aspiration and build the confidence of regional, rural and remote students
- ensure regional, rural and remote people are better informed about, and supported to pursue, post-secondary education and career pathways
- increase tertiary participation and attainment for people in regional, rural and remote communities
- facilitate a strong and sustainable ‘homegrown’ workforce that can address region-specific skills and workforce needs
- work towards shared community goals, and ultimately seek to deliver stronger regional, rural and remote communities.