SCHOOL children in the bush are the real victims of poor internet availability say a growing group of concerned and frustrated parents.
Low data limits available to families in regional areas and persistent internet drop outs mean school children, whose education is increasingly delivered online, can’t do the homework and research tasks their teachers set.
Multiple families told The Land this week the data available to them wasn’t enough to accommodate their businesses as well as their children’s needs. Their stories are backed up by the findings of a recent survey conducted by the lobby group Better Internet for Rural, Regional and Remote Australia, which found 50 per cent of respondents hit their monthly internet quota before the month’s end.
Bingara businesswoman Anna McMurtrie can testify. Her office plays home to her off-farm business, Wentworth Travel, her family’s farm, “Yarrandabbie”, plus her three children’s after-school classroom.
“I can tell you 15 gigabytes – the maximum available to us- is not enough to operate two businesses and have three children who are frequently researching school projects and doing homework online,” Mrs McMurtrie said.
“Our access to data and reliable internet on the whole has really started to impact their education.”
Extra curricular study is often out of the question for students in the bush.
Claire Butler, “The Vale”, Balranald, recently tried to arrange online maths tuition her for son but her internet speed was too low.
“The alternative was driving a 440 kilometre round trip for private tuition with Kip Mcgrath which is just not achievable. The end result was he will have to wait until next year when he goes to boarding school interstate. This is something we wanted to avoid,” Mrs Butler said.
Pre-school children are also being disadvantaged.
Sarah Sandow’s five-year-old William is a bubbly young boy who loves learning. But his experience of pre-school is not your average one. Each day he shares his paintings with his peers via the internet and he has picture books read to him via video link by a teacher thousands of kilometres away.
The Sandow family, who live at “Theldarpa Station”, Tibooburra, are signed up to a Telstra wireless broadband plan which gives them 15GB of data for $129 a month. It’s the maximum amount of data they can access and it isn’t nearly enough.
“We often use our monthly allowance, sometimes as early as a fortnight into the month, and we have to ring Telstra and beg for more data,” Mrs Sandow said.
“At the click of a button Telstra can give us an extra 5GB at no charge but it’s not guaranteed.
“I feel the quality of my son’s education is at the whim of Telstra. I know other parents who avoid downloading and uploading pre-school material but I want my son to have the same opportunities children in bigger towns have. ”
Connectivity was a hot topic at the Isolated Children’s Parents Association (ICPA) NSW conference held in Griffith last month.
ICPA NSW president Kate Treweeke took the opportunity to reiterate the not-for-profit organisation’s mantra.
“All students - from pre-school to tertiary - living in rural and remote Australia must have access to resources that enable them to reach their full educational potential,” said Mrs Treweeke said.
At the conference the ICPA Nyngan branch explained how when local miners change shift and commence using their computers and other devices, the data speed in town slows significantly which disrupts the evening study routines of school, TAFE and university students.
At the conference the branch moved the federal ICPA lobby the Communications Minister to guarantee the availability of band width to communities in western NSW.
The Rankins Springs branch told the conference how poor internet prevents local students from participating in many connected classroom activities including author visits, virtual excursions, and learning a second language. The local school bought tablets to enhance some learning programs within the school, however, more often than not they can’t connect to the internet.
The branch moved the ICPA NSW urge the Education Minister to ensure all schools with teaching principals have a secure and consistent satellite internet connection.
These issues will now be taken to the federal ICPA conference in August.
This week The Land launched its #notgoodenough campaign to speak up about unreliable internet in the bush.
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