Katherine School of the Air

We spent one hour learning about the schooling of children who live in remote areas of the Northern Territory. Katherine School of the Air is the largest classroom in Australia teaching students from Kununurra on the WA boarder to Tennant Creek south. All classes are run via satellite with use of cameras and computers, a bit like skype, however the whole class logs on at the same time and the online teaching goes for 2 hours each day. The rest of the learning is done thru work posted to the students and they have designated tutors to work with them. The tutors can be a parent, some larger stations employ someone to be a tutor full time and the tutor does not have to be a qualified teacher. Some stations are lucky to have retired school teachers who volunteer their time on for a season in exchange for food and board. The learning in the School of the Air is the same as a mainstream school however just delivered in a different form. It was fantastic to see and from our experience with travelling and schooling I can see the quality learning that the students get from life experiences that they would encounter in the bush.

The classroom