Across the nation, in regional, rural and remote areas, thousands of children are learning remotely because of the lack of easily accessible educational options. When educational researchers Karen Peel and Patrick Danaher explored the challenges facing these isolated families, they found mothers struggling with their dual role as unpaid education tutor – and amplified their urgent pleas for greater financial support to help ease the burden.
The Isolated Children’s Parents’ Association (ICPA) Australia is calling on the Federal Government to commit to critical funding increases and new support measures to ensure equitable education access for geographically isolated students.
The organisation says rural and remote families are being left behind by an outdated education support system that is failing to keep pace with increased needs and rising costs.
The challenges faced by remote education tutors
Fundamental to the delivery of distance schooling is the commitment of what’s known as the remote education tutor (RET). This person functions as a conduit between the distance schooling teacher and the student. In many cases, that role is taken up by the student’s mother, who is expected to be the support provider with no remuneration.
To help students living in these under-resourced, often isolated communities, the work of the RET is essential to help access quality and equitable education.
But the way RETs area treated differs wildly from the way teachers’ aides in traditional classroom settings are treated – and the ICPA wants to see that change.
Over the past four decades, schools across Australia have increased the number of teacher aides employed, to assist teachers in providing quality education for students. But unlike RETs, these aides get paid.
The research shows there are two distinct groups of RETs: governesses, who are employed as RETs in a paid position; and mothers, who facilitate their own children’s education in the environment of a home-based classroom setting.
Governesses are a huge cost for families and often come with limited or no training and learn on the job.
For many geographically isolated families, meeting the cost of employing a governess for an RET role is a financial impossibility. As such, mothers are left with restricted rights and few choices. They receive no income for completing the complex role and experience limited acknowledgement for undertaking this essential and mandated educational position.
Acknowledgement and remuneration for the RET
At the 2024 Queensland Isolated Children’s Parents’ Association (ICPA) conference conducted in Townsville, Australian parents unanimously voted for a proposal to provide suitable acknowledgement and remuneration for RETs. It’s a proposal that has been discussed for decades but the parents at the coalface of providing education support for isolated children say little has changed.
So why are mothers simply expected to make sacrifices?
The mother as the RET
States and territories mandate that students 12 years and under must be supervised by an adult for the whole school day. And mothers do that while also juggling with other responsibilities and the management of this substantial and time-consuming task. These duties can extend for several years, depending on the number of children in the family.
Groups such as the ICPA repeatedly advocate for the role that rural women play in educating their children. But Peel and Danaher’s research led them to believe that politicians – and the rest of us – should be forced to acknowledge how hard it is to access compulsory education for families living in geographically isolated locations.
Researching mothers as RETs in Australian distance schooling
One mother/RET pointed out the inequities and financial burdens of being positioned to fulfil the RET role. She said, “Because we are geographically isolated, me doing this role is our only choice unless we want to send our kids to boarding school, which costs a lot of money.”
Another mother/RET admitted, “I do struggle and think that, if you were just the teacher, you’d be a little bit more patient, whereas being the mother as well, it definitely blurs.”
And with this new research revealing the pressures so many regional, rural and remote families face, many say establishing a system of government support for financial compensation so this work can extend to being more than a labour of love is long overdue.
