We didn't actually get to visit the School of the Air site, but got to meet a Grandmother and a Mother of two bush kids currently in school. The service is an eduacational facility for all the children in the outback area.

The classes are conducted via radio from the teachers in the larger districts to the individual children, or families of children in their homesteads based in the remote areas of Australia.(In some cases the nearest person from one of the children's classes could be between 50 to 300 miles away!!).

This facility is standard in the outback, with no one blinking an eyelid! (The aboriginal children, however, probably will not use it as they are still, in the main, finding it hard to adjust to the White man's way of living.)

The mothers, in most cases, are the teachers. The child, or children sit down to their lessons in the morning, with their radio, and finish when their lessons are over!

They start the School of the Air at 5 years oldand then will go to a regular school or college later. Their assignments are sent by post to the teachers who mark then an return them with the necessary comments.

The child may study for years only interacting with other kids 3 times a year.

I asked the mother what she thought the advantages and disadvantages were and she said:

Advantages:

1. You know that your child is actually learning because you are personally working with them
2. You get to spend much more quality time with your children
3. Generally the children get better grades because they have less distractions than regular schools

Disadvantages:

1. Interaction with other kids especially for things like team sports
2. The concept of TIME. The bush kids need to come into the towns for exams, and because they are used to having a lot of time at home to complete their homework, they find it harder to fit everything into a 3 hour paper

I could not believe that children in the 21st Century were learning like this, it amazed me. These children must be living far far away from any other civilisation than their parents and immediate family.

I wonder how they behave, and what their mind set is ?

All in all I feel it must be a wonderful way to learn and so pure. I would love to visit those outback kids to see for myself. Unfortunately we picked the one day out of 362 others that the service is not operating.

I hope you enjoyed this piece of information. If you wish to hear about other bush activities you can click to go to the Flying Doctors of Australia page.

read about the The Flying Doctors of Australia
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