Rural Education in Tasmania
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.47381/aijre.v7i2.422Abstract
The general perception of many mainlanders is that rural education in Tasmania does not exist because of the small size of the state. However, this perception ignores important geographical factors such as topography and the distribution of population. The result is that Tasmania does in fact have a significant rural education sector, covering distinct areas such as the West Coast, Bass Strait Islands, Midlands, the Channel and North East and East coasts - in fact most areas outside the 'islands of urbanisation'. Although the overall Australian population is increasing, the rate is very different State by State. If current trends continue, the population in Queensland will increase by over 80% by the year 2041, while in Tasmania it will increase by only 15% in the same period. Tasmania's present growth rate is low (at 0.21 %) compared to 1.06% for Australia as a whole. Tasmania's proportion of the Australian population will therefore drop from 2.7% in 1995 to 2.0% by 2041. At present the school population in Tasmania is relatively stable. Up to the year 2000 the overall numbers will be approximately the same, although there will be a decrease in secondary students (20,570 in 1996 to 18,150 in 2000) and an increase in both senior secondary (8980 in 1996 to 10,350 in 2000) and primary students (35,710 in 1996 to 36,760 in 2000). Much of this discrepancy was caused by the policy change resulting in every student having a Preparatory year from 1993. This effectively meant that a reduced cohort of students progressed to Year 1 in 1993, while an increased cohort remained in Preparatory. The difference was not as great as had been predicted because the policy was not rigidly enforced, with some parents choosing to send their children straight to Year 1 in that first year. Commonwealth grants to the States as a share of Commonwealth taxes have fallen from 35.7% in 1982/83 to 27.7% in 1995/96 and when compared with GDP growth, grants to the States have declined 21 % since 1982/83 (equivalent to a reduction of $8.9 billion in 1995/96 terms).
Downloads
Published
How to Cite
Issue
Section
License
Copyright (c) 2023 Graham Harrington
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
Authors contributing to The Australian and Internation Journal of Rural Education agree to publish their articles under a Creative Commons CC-BY 4.0 license, allowing third parties to copy and redistribute the material in any medium or format, and to remix, transform, and build upon the material, for any purpose, even commercially, under the condition that appropriate credit is given, that a link to the license is provided, and that you indicate if changes were made. You may do so in any reasonable manner, but not in any way that suggests the licensor endorses you or your use.
Authors retain copyright of their work, with first publication rights granted to The Australian and Internation Journal of Rural Education.
Manuscripts submitted for publication should not have been published or submitted for publication elsewhere. It is the responsibility of authors to secure release of any copyright materials included in their manuscripts, and to provide written evidence of this to the editors.
Papers are accepted on the understanding that they are subject to editorial revision. The Editorial Committee cannot guarantee that all contributions will be published nor give definite dates of publication. However, contributors will be advised if their papers are not accepted or if there will be a long publication delay.
