Individual tuition is provided to meet an Indigenous student's individual learning needs, with the amount and frequency of tuition being based on the educational needs of the student. A single tutor can provide assistance to small groups of up to six students where there are several students with common tuition needs. Students at primary level and above, students enrolled in structured accredited training programs and prisoners or youth detainees can access individual or small group tuition.
Primary and secondary students can access up to five hours of individual or small group tuition per week. Tertiary students can access up to two hours tuition per subject per week, and may also be able to access an additional five hours in total during examination preparation periods.
Students accessing individual or small group tuition can also access up to $50 per year as reimbursement of special materials or equipment essential to the success of the tutorial program. Non-metropolitan students may also receive $0.60 per kilometre travelled in excess of 40km in a round trip to attend a tutorial session.
The Department also enters into bulk funding arrangements with institutions for the delivery of individual or small group tuition at the institution. Under these arrangements, the Department provides funding to the institution based on established funding formula, and the institution is responsible for determining which students should be assisted and for engaging tutors to provide the required assistance. Students cannot access materials and equipment or travel reimbursement under bulk funding arrangements.
Tertiary institutions receive bulk funding to provide three hours of individual tuition for 34 weeks to 35 per cent of Indigenous students at the institution, and three hours of tuition for 34 weeks to 15 per cent of Indigenous students in small groups of four students. Institutions may use up to 15 per cent of this funding to cover costs related to the administration of the program.
Boarding schools receive bulk funding to provide two hours of tuition to each small group of five Indigenous students at the school for 34 weeks per year. Other bulk-funded institutions, such as correctional centres and local educational compacts, are usually funded according to this formula. An additional 15 per cent of this amount is provided to cover administrative expenses.
Funding
In 2003, total individual and small group tuition expenditure was almost $15 million (includes $7.4 million bulk-funded payments to universities and boarding schools).
Assessment of appropriateness/effectiveness
Individual tuition has a higher unit cost than other forms of tuition. It is can be argued this form is more appropriate for secondary students and above, where the diversity of subjects available means that it is often not feasible to provide tuition in a small group and where individualised tuition is particularly important.
Small group tuition offers a cost effective way of addressing common needs, and is often most appropriate for core learning principles such as literacy and numeracy needs.
Bulk funding arrangements are both effective and appropriate. They enable the education institution to exercise its expertise about the students. needs, curriculum choice and teaching methods, and administrative tasks associated with the scheme are shared with the institution. It also gives greater control of the tutoring process and content to the educational institutions.
Tuition during school hours (or .In-school tuition.) is a mode of ATAS which allows the delivery of individual or small group tuition during normal school hours. In the past, ATAS tuition was not normally allowed during school hours because ATAS is supplementary assistance which should not be used to substitute for mainstream educational resources. However, in some instances the provision of in-school tuition is required to consolidate literacy and numeracy skills at a critical stage of student development. It is considered justified when all available mainstream educational services have been tried and found unsuccessful.
Tuition during school hours in literacy and numeracy may be approved for primary students assessed as being within the bottom 20 per cent of the grade, after alternative approaches have been considered and with the approval of both the school and the students. parents. In exceptional circumstances, secondary tuition during school hours may also be approved.
Students can access up to five hours of ATAS tuition per week. In most instances, involved students are removed from the classroom for small group tuition with their tutor for one hour each morning. However, .In-class. tuition arrangements trailed in NSW, in which the ATAS tutor remains in the classroom as an additional teaching resource, have also been assessed as successful. In-class tuition arrangements may avoid the stigma of classroom withdrawal. It gives the school and classroom teacher greater input to the curriculum content being tutored in and can enable ATAS tutors to access school professional development activities.
Tuition during school hours can also be provided through a bulk funding arrangement with the institution or school system. Under these arrangements, the school is responsible for contracting tutors to provide the tuition during school hours. As schools are not a legal entity, contracts may be with the school system, as in NSW where the NSW Department of Education and Training is administering the delivery of in-class tuition to students at a number of state primary schools. In other instances, the system may authorise individual schools to enter into bulk-funding arrangements with the Commonwealth. However, bulk-funding for tuition during school hours does not currently operate in all States.
Funding
In 2002, $14 million was expended on tuition during school hours.
Assessment of appropriateness/effectiveness
In-school tuition arrangements have been well received by schools and parents. Evidence suggests that these arrangements encourage student participation at an important foundation phase of a student's education and deliver good results. In 2002, the New South Wales in-class tuition program evaluation revealed that 95 per cent of sampled schools reported students have demonstrated growth towards achieving literacy and numeracy syllabus outcomes, after a program of tuition not exceeding 20 weeks.
The introduction of widespread in-school tuition arrangements has substantially increased the demand on the available ATAS budget. In-school tuition is provided only on the basis of the lowest 20 per cent of students accessing the tuition, however the benefits of ATAS in-school tuition has increased demand for both in-school and individual/small group tuition.
It is considered that ATAS Tuition During School Hours is an appropriate program intervention and that it needs to be evaluated over time to ensure that it is not being used to replace what should be core activities of schools and systems and that Indigenous students use of this form of tuition does not in any way restrict their access to mainstream teaching and curriculum resources.
Homework centres provide a supervised environment for Indigenous primary and secondary students to complete homework and develop independent and effective study habits.
Although homework centre staff are engaged in the same way and from the same reserve as ATAS tutors, they are not considered tutors. Staff are not required to deliver a tuition program to particular students, but provide general assistance to any Indigenous student who attends the Centre.
Homework centres are overseen by a Management Group, usually constituted from a school's Aboriginal Student Support and Parent Awareness (ASSPA) Committee. Homework centres are not approved for more than 4 hours or two sessions per week without evidence of student need, and may not operate for more than 10 hours per week. There must be an average attendance of 8 or more students to justify the homework centre.
Homework centre budgets, other than staff payments, are negotiated with the Department twice yearly based on average student attendances. Funding is provided to allow the homework centre to purchase materials and light refreshments for students, hire a venue where school premises cannot be used and transport participating students where necessary.
Homework centres also provide a suitable place for ATAS tuition to occur, where there is no other suitable place for the tuition. This tuition is not part of the homework centre business.
Funding
In 2002 there were 693 homework centres, with operating costs of $2.925 million and staffing costs of $6.199 million
Assessment of appropriateness/effectiveness
The effectiveness of homework centres varies considerably. In some states, homework centres are not considered to be the most cost-effective use of funding and have not been widely approved. Some homework centres are regarded as serving a valuable function of encouraging and facilitating the participation of students who may otherwise drop out of education. In some instances, school principals have valued the homework centre highly and have found additional resources to extend similar programs to non-Indigenous students. Parents also support access to homework centres.
Travel costs form a large component of the expenses of many homework centres. Additionally, the light refreshments which are often an inducement for Indigenous students to attend the homework centre and remain at school cannot be directly linked with educational outcomes. Homework centres are arguably less justifiable than other elements of the ATAS program.
It can be argued that homework centres make an important contribution to Indigenous students. engagement in school education and contribute to a range of social and educational outcomes, but in their current form are not appropriately placed in the ATAS sub-program because they are not a method of tuition. Consideration should be given to moving homework centres to another part of the IEDA program, so that more flexible funding arrangements which encourage partnerships with schools and communities can be introduced and to encourage integration with other education services.