Children Missing Out As Education Costs Rise
Sydney Morning Herald
Thursday October 17, 1996
The growing cost of education in NSW government schools is hurting students who cannot afford to pay school fees, buy textbooks or attend school camps or excursions, a new survey has found.
Soon to be published research by welfare organisation The Smith Family shows more than 80 per cent of the 500 people surveyed were unable to meet the costs of schools fees, 78 per cent could not afford to send their children on camps and 77 per cent could not afford to pay subject fees.
"Despite policy pronouncements stressing equity, many children from low income families are disadvantaged by the price of education in State schools," the report says.
"These financial pressures have sustained for so long that regular school costs are unable to be met."
Three out of five of the people surveyed were unemployed and the survey found that children in these families often went through their whole school life without having access to the education resources enjoyed by most.
The general manager of human services with The Smith Family, Ms Elizabeth Orr, said education was one of the most effective ways of breaking the poverty cycle.
A previous survey of literacy skills among 500 high school children taking part in the organisation's EDU-CATE sponsorship scheme found 60 per cent of disadvantaged students had literacy problems, compared with an estimated 10 per cent to 20 per cent of the total school population.
"If we can educate kids so they get better jobs and have a range of opportunities they will be able to get work and not perpetuate the poverty cycle," Ms Orr said.
The relieving manager of specific focus programs at the Department of School Education, Mr Ray Gillies, said being poor did not condemn a child to low levels of educational achievement and children in economic hardship should not be stereotyped as having no hope of educational success.
But he said the department had found that where there was a large number of disadvantaged families, the average literacy levels among students were lower and students often used less sophisticated ways to deal with conflict, such as violence, absenteeism and truancy.
More than 150,000 students will receive funding through the disadvantaged schools program over the next three years with nearly $40 million being spent by the State and Federal governments this year.
The co-ordinator of the National Centre for Equity in Education, Ms Joan Brown, said hunger, a lack of a stable environment to work in and frequent moving all worked against students living in poverty.
"If you are hungry you don't learn. In the short term it causes poor concentration. In the long, the affects of malnutrition are a serious medical problem," she said.
"Children living in poverty suffer in comparison to others. In all the statistics their educational outcomes and other opportunities, that would hopefully be better than their parents, are not good."
© 1996 Sydney Morning Herald