The Remote School Attendance Strategy (RSAS): Why invest in a strategy that reduces attendance?
In late 2013, under the leadership of Prime Minister Abbott, the Australian Government announced a new policy designed to increase attendance rates in remote community schools—the Remote School Attendance Strategy (RSAS). The model assumed that employing local people in the program, which was design...
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Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies Unit, The University of Queensland
2022
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Online Access: | https://doi.org/10.55146/ajie.v51i2.35 https://doaj.org/article/3e9cb9305c484e999d7517ae880bfd6f |
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ftdoajarticles:oai:doaj.org/article:3e9cb9305c484e999d7517ae880bfd6f 2023-05-15T16:16:40+02:00 The Remote School Attendance Strategy (RSAS): Why invest in a strategy that reduces attendance? John Guenther Samuel Osborne Stephen Corrie Lester-Irabinna Rigney Kevin Lowe 2022-12-01T00:00:00Z https://doi.org/10.55146/ajie.v51i2.35 https://doaj.org/article/3e9cb9305c484e999d7517ae880bfd6f EN eng Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies Unit, The University of Queensland https://ajie.atsis.uq.edu.au/ajie/article/view/35 https://doaj.org/toc/2049-7784 doi:10.55146/ajie.v51i2.35 2049-7784 https://doaj.org/article/3e9cb9305c484e999d7517ae880bfd6f The Australian Journal of Indigenous Education, Vol 51, Iss 2 (2022) attendance remote education policy interventions Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander education success Special aspects of education LC8-6691 article 2022 ftdoajarticles https://doi.org/10.55146/ajie.v51i2.35 2022-12-30T20:04:27Z In late 2013, under the leadership of Prime Minister Abbott, the Australian Government announced a new policy designed to increase attendance rates in remote community schools—the Remote School Attendance Strategy (RSAS). The model assumed that employing local people in the program, which was designed to support parents get their children to school, would yield significant improvements and consequently improve educational outcomes. After a slight initial increase in school attendance rates, RSAS schools have seen average attendance rates decline since 2016, which now stand more than eight percentage points lower than at commencement. This article analyses My School data for Very Remote Aboriginal schools, showing how the RSAS school attendance results compare with similar non-RSAS schools. We question why the Australian Government continues to invest in a program that is not meeting its objectives, asking, what went wrong?. We do this by critically analysing 36 policy-related documents, looking for ideological clues that show why the government continues to invest in the program and how it sees it as “successful”. We conclude by raising ethical and accountability concerns about the RSAS, which lacks evidence of attendance improvement, and which potentially causes harm to its objects: First Nations students. Article in Journal/Newspaper First Nations Directory of Open Access Journals: DOAJ Articles Abbott ENVELOPE(-62.133,-62.133,-64.100,-64.100) The Australian Journal of Indigenous Education 51 2 |
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Open Polar |
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Directory of Open Access Journals: DOAJ Articles |
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ftdoajarticles |
language |
English |
topic |
attendance remote education policy interventions Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander education success Special aspects of education LC8-6691 |
spellingShingle |
attendance remote education policy interventions Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander education success Special aspects of education LC8-6691 John Guenther Samuel Osborne Stephen Corrie Lester-Irabinna Rigney Kevin Lowe The Remote School Attendance Strategy (RSAS): Why invest in a strategy that reduces attendance? |
topic_facet |
attendance remote education policy interventions Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander education success Special aspects of education LC8-6691 |
description |
In late 2013, under the leadership of Prime Minister Abbott, the Australian Government announced a new policy designed to increase attendance rates in remote community schools—the Remote School Attendance Strategy (RSAS). The model assumed that employing local people in the program, which was designed to support parents get their children to school, would yield significant improvements and consequently improve educational outcomes. After a slight initial increase in school attendance rates, RSAS schools have seen average attendance rates decline since 2016, which now stand more than eight percentage points lower than at commencement. This article analyses My School data for Very Remote Aboriginal schools, showing how the RSAS school attendance results compare with similar non-RSAS schools. We question why the Australian Government continues to invest in a program that is not meeting its objectives, asking, what went wrong?. We do this by critically analysing 36 policy-related documents, looking for ideological clues that show why the government continues to invest in the program and how it sees it as “successful”. We conclude by raising ethical and accountability concerns about the RSAS, which lacks evidence of attendance improvement, and which potentially causes harm to its objects: First Nations students. |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
John Guenther Samuel Osborne Stephen Corrie Lester-Irabinna Rigney Kevin Lowe |
author_facet |
John Guenther Samuel Osborne Stephen Corrie Lester-Irabinna Rigney Kevin Lowe |
author_sort |
John Guenther |
title |
The Remote School Attendance Strategy (RSAS): Why invest in a strategy that reduces attendance? |
title_short |
The Remote School Attendance Strategy (RSAS): Why invest in a strategy that reduces attendance? |
title_full |
The Remote School Attendance Strategy (RSAS): Why invest in a strategy that reduces attendance? |
title_fullStr |
The Remote School Attendance Strategy (RSAS): Why invest in a strategy that reduces attendance? |
title_full_unstemmed |
The Remote School Attendance Strategy (RSAS): Why invest in a strategy that reduces attendance? |
title_sort |
remote school attendance strategy (rsas): why invest in a strategy that reduces attendance? |
publisher |
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies Unit, The University of Queensland |
publishDate |
2022 |
url |
https://doi.org/10.55146/ajie.v51i2.35 https://doaj.org/article/3e9cb9305c484e999d7517ae880bfd6f |
long_lat |
ENVELOPE(-62.133,-62.133,-64.100,-64.100) |
geographic |
Abbott |
geographic_facet |
Abbott |
genre |
First Nations |
genre_facet |
First Nations |
op_source |
The Australian Journal of Indigenous Education, Vol 51, Iss 2 (2022) |
op_relation |
https://ajie.atsis.uq.edu.au/ajie/article/view/35 https://doaj.org/toc/2049-7784 doi:10.55146/ajie.v51i2.35 2049-7784 https://doaj.org/article/3e9cb9305c484e999d7517ae880bfd6f |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.55146/ajie.v51i2.35 |
container_title |
The Australian Journal of Indigenous Education |
container_volume |
51 |
container_issue |
2 |
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1766002518941237248 |