A remote indigenous community near Burketown, in the far northwest region of Queensland, is pushing for help to keep their families together.
It’s a struggle, as their kids get older, study options disappear, forcing many to send their children away for higher education.
This is an ongoing problem in remote parts of the state, with many parents wanting government consultation to help keep young children at home once they complete Year 6.
They say the solution is simple—opening a position, like a teacher aide, at a local primary school could facilitate distance education.
The Bidunggu Reserve, located 120 kilometres (74.6 miles) from Burketown, is a family-oriented indigenous community sustained with funds from mining royalties.
Bidunggu parents Claudette and Shane King say kids in the community are passionate about learning and love school, but are often heartbroken at the prospect of being forced to move to big city boarding schools from Year 7 due to their strong family connections and love of community.
The parents say the stress has taken a toll on some children, who have attempted to take their own lives after being forced to relocate to schools and towns they are unfamiliar with.
“We just get concerned about our high school kids because we send them to boarding school,” Ms. King told The Epoch Times.
“It’s very hard sending them away. Why can’t they have it here?
“They come from the country, they don’t know the cities.”
The Kings receive income from the community’s mining royalties to drive children from the Reserve to the school each day. They also prepare their lunches.
Mr. King himself learned to drive a bus so that students in his community could all have a fair go at learning.
But according to Ms. King, attempts at facilitating homeschooling via Cairns through the local Burketown Primary School have fallen flat.
She says the school only needs one teacher aide for two or three days a week, to help students with distance education.
MP’s Efforts to Give Remote Families More Schooling Options
Member for Mount Isa Robbie Katter has taken up the fight on numerous occasions, but says he’s also hit a wall with trying to cut through government red tape.The Bidungga Reserve situation is one of many faced by parents in small, rural, and remote communities.
Mr. Katter highlights the irony of students in areas without high schools—being able to study high school subjects via distance education—while living near unused school facilities including air-conditioned rooms.
The Mount Isa MP says he doesn’t understand why the Labor government has not backed more flexible options for regional families.
“They long since gave up trying to represent the poor,” Mr. Katter told The Epoch Times.
“They should be backing it.”
Mr. Katter would like to see children in rural and remote communities being given the choice between supported distance education or boarding school.
In October, Mr. Katter lodged a bill in Parliament to expand options for families in remote areas. It did not pass.
Had it passed, Mr. Katter’s bill would have enabled the Queensland education minister, after public consultation, to make fit-for-purpose arrangements on a case-by-case basis for primary schools in remote Queensland to provide schooling for students in Years 7-10.
According to Mr. Katter, the challenges addressed by his proposed legislation were exacerbated by the transfer of Year 7 to secondary schooling in 2015.
“While this change might have been welcomed by some, the transfer of Year 7 to high school has made an already difficult situation more so,” he said.
“When rural kids need to start high school, families in towns with only a primary school have to either pack up their family and move, enrol their child in distance education, or ship their kids—some now as young as 11—away to boarding schools in the larger towns and cities,” he said.
“As I have travelled around my electorate of Traeger and other rural and remote parts of the state in recent years, this is an issue that has been brought up by educators and parents time and time again.
“Many parents want to keep their kids in their local communities, and family homes, for as long as possible.”
Meanwhile, Ms. King said children in her community often struggled without their families and many struggled with racism. She says that when their studies fall behind because of the distress of being so far from home, there are very few options other than moving to other boarding schools.
“They’re very excited to keep studying, if they have that option in Burketown,” she said.
Department Says It Will Work With Parents
A Queensland Department of Education spokesperson said it would continue working with families.“The Department of Education recognises the challenges of raising and educating children in one of the most remote parts of Queensland and is committed to ensuring all students, no matter where they live, have access to high quality learning opportunities,” a spokesperson told The Epoch Times.
“The department offers a range of opportunities for secondary students who cannot attend a local high school. One of these services is enrolling in a school of distance education for their secondary program.
“Through the department’s North Queensland region, we will work with the school and families from the community to support the students’ needs.”
