In November 2018, the Hon Dan Tehan MP, the Minister for Education, announced the Federal Government’s strategy for improving education in Australia’s regional, rural and remote (RRR) communities. This strategy endeavours to increase country students' access to tertiary education. Many RRR students must either study via distance education courses or bear the costs of relocating to metropolitan areas for increased educational access.
Alphacrucis College’s Hub model provides a feasible solution to this problem. The Hub trains aspiring teachers within their local schools so they can remain in their communities both during and post study. Students are hand-picked by schools and remain within the school as part-time teacher assistants during their studies. Students are mentored by experienced teachers, receive subsidised tuition fees and have virtually guaranteed employment in their school upon completion of the program.
Alphacrucis College has recently transitioned from a pilot to a full Hub in the Hunter Region of NSW in partnership with St Philip’s Christian College. Following the success of the 'St Philip's Teaching School', a second Hub, (the Teaching School Alliance Sydney), will commence teacher training in 2020. Alphacrucis College believes this model could provide a solution to the issues faced by students and schools in RRR communities. Dr David Hastie (Associate Dean, Education Development) commented ‘we’re very interested in exploring how [this can] operate in our most disadvantaged communities because staff churn is high and teacher supply is extremely unreliable. It tends to be one year in, one year out, fly in fly out. If you can actually train people from the bush, in the bush, for the bush, you’ve got yourself a solution for not only reversing disadvantage in those communities but also more broadly for regionalisation as a policy.’
To read more, head here for The Australian’s coverage on this new development: https://www.theaustralian.com.au/higher-education/good-teacher-training-starts-in-the-classroom-strategy-for-the-regions/news-story/612f24f1d8edbbe242a96c3a94c0dc02