Remote area schooling is expensive

and still does not offer the same resources as urban schooling.

There was one of those "human interest" articles in the paper yesterday and it was being discussed this morning by two former neighbours I happened to see. They hauled me into the conversation because, as they said, I experienced remote area schooling.

My initial year at school was fine. It was at a three teacher school in a moderately sized "town" (small village to those of you in Upover).  Some children came in from surrounding farms but quite a number lived in the town itself.

In my last two years of "primary" however I went to a two teacher school. My parents were the teachers. The Senior Cat, who taught me and my brother, had four year levels to teach and a further year of "correspondence" classes to supervise.  It was, to put it mildly, difficult to do. One reason for this was because intermarriage in the area meant there were a number of very "slow" learners and another was that some of the students were simply "marking time" until they were old enough to leave school. They would then go back and work on the farm. Then there were the handful of students who wanted to go on to a much better secondary and tertiary education.

I had already been promoted above my age group, indeed was almost two years younger than anyone else in my "year". My brother was not quite so badly off being only twelve months younger. The son of one of the "roving professionals" (people who came to do things like banking or teaching) was also given accelerated promotion. It was the only way to cope with a very, very bright child. (He later became a solicitor.) We were left largely to learn alone. There was no choice about this. 

The school had very limited resources and it was the Senior Cat who first organised the  box of books from the Country Lending Service each term. (My brother and I and the future solicitor also borrowed books and shared them with each other.) Even so many of the children did not read the books which were sent. They could not read well enough. Their parents did not read. There were no books in their homes.

Most of the local students came in via the two "buses" - in reality mini-vans that had extra seats put in for the morning and afternoon runs. During the day they served as farm vehicles. (No, there wasn't a seat belt in sight!) 

Then the Senior Cat had the task of setting up an Area School in another part of the state. It was a very difficult job because there were small two high schools within the distance of school bus travel. Some parents had wanted their children to attend one or other high school but they were forced to send their children to the local "area" school. This was where the school bus would take their children, There were two "streams", one for public examinations (rather like O and A levels) and another for rural studies. If you were "smart" you did PEB (Public Examinations Board). Yes, classes were small but subject choices were non-existent - no languages, no classics, no history or social sciences. The Senior Cat taught English and maths and ran the school. He would often have to leave us to work alone while he dealt with other problems.

This sort of thing went on as we moved around. I longed to do a language and history. I wanted to do "art" but was sent to "dressmaking" because all the girls did that. That I could not even thread a needle was not a consideration until the Senior Cat managed to get permission for two of us to do "art by correspondence". There were units for that and I took all the history of art units and somehow managed to get through the rest with a creditable pass, still working by correspondence, at yet another school. 

I say all this but also admit I was well off. I did not have the sometimes two hour bus journey in the mornings and another two hours at night. Homework had to be done on the bus because there was farm work to be done when you arrived home. That a few students managed to get to university was nothing short of miraculous. 

Of course parents who could afford it sent their children off to boarding school but that was, and still is, a huge expense. Even boarding with a family in the city and going to the local public high school was beyond many people. There were other issues with that as well. My parents sent me to a boarding school for the final year and it was one of the worst experiences of my life. (What saved me was the "Matron" of the girls' boarding house recognising this and, quite illegally, sending me off to my paternal grandparents each weekend. I would not have survived the year or managed to learn much without that respite from the constant bullying. It was simply too late to send me (or anyone else) as a boarder.)

Even now if parents do afford it there is the expense of getting their children home for holidays. Most of the time "exeat weekends" (half-term) would see some students staying on at school or, if they were fortunate, being invited to stay by day students.

I worked as a "junior housemistress" in another boarding school. It was a good deal better than the one I attended but there were still issues, most often because of the immense distances the students had travelled to actually be there. It does make a difference if your parents are not there when, as one girl had happen to her, you are fitted with a back brace for scoliosis and your parents are almost a thousand kilometres away. Others had braces on their teeth and one girl was an insulin dependent diabetic. It was very hard for them to deal with all this and all the other issues of growing up. 

The boarding school several streets from here is very different but it is still not "home" and the school is acutely aware of that. They do the very best they can but the cost is enormous - and not just financial. 

As the mother in the article in yesterday's paper mentioned, perhaps the very least the government could do would be see that students who must leave home to continue their education were given some financial assistance - at least enough to get home for the holidays.