Communication dropouts still a concern

The lack of communication services, provider assistance and timely fault repairs were a major concern for delegates of the Isolated Children's Parents' Association (ICPA) who attended its 45th annual conference in Perth last week.

Delegates from 39 branches across Australia voted on more than 20 motions on the telecommunication issue and agreed that going days and sometimes weeks without a landline, mobile phone service and patchy internet, restricted childrens' education and was a safety concern.

Federal ICPA president Wendy Hick said there were communication problems nation-wide, with parents unable to find answers when they had difficulties with installation and faults.

"We hope, by having these discussions, we are going to put forward some ideas so this can be addressed," Ms Hick said.

"Not just saying what the problems are, but a solution and help everyone out there."

Ms Hick said the motions put forward from the branch members and delegates would become policy for government lobbying.

"We are advocating, regardless of where children live, they need access to education and the resources and tools for that education," Ms Hick said.

"Telecommunication needs to be Australia-wide."

A majority of the motions were from the Northern Territory and Queensland.

Queensland delegates were concerned about technical difficulties and drop outs of satellite internet, which affected student participation and restricted their learning.

They asked the ICPA to lobby Telstra and other relevant telecommunications providers to urgently attemd to rural and remote students experiencing phone outages and faults.

ICPA WA president Liz Sudlow hoped to see the installation of services, including NBN and Sky Muster, go as smoothly as possible.

"Sky Muster stands to revolutionise children's education and I am sure it will be fantastic, there has just been a few issues in the role out of it," Ms Sudlow said.

"We are hoping education be taken into consideration, as a priority with installation in WA."

Ms Sudlow said Telstra was listening to and responding to concerns from the day's discussions.

"People in the city don't know what's going on out there," Ms Sudlow said.

"Parents in remote areas have a huge responsibility to educate their children."

The same disgruntled message was echoed by many delegates from around Australia, including mother of two and ICPA Goldfields-Eyre branch State council member Elyce Donaghy.

Ms Donaghy said while WA families were not having too many issues with faults and repairs times experienced elsewhere there were still black spots throughout regional WA, making home tutoring extremely difficult, especially at peak periods.

"My daughter Claire is in Year 8 at Esperance Anglican Community School as a boarding student and my other daughter Erin is in Year 6, at Kalgoorlie School of the Air and I am her home tutor," she said.

"In WA we are lucky as we don't have that many issues yet, some of our installs are happening within weeks, while some are taking a few months.

"There is a bit of variation between providers."

Ms Donaghy said at peak times in the early mornings, lunch times and "smoko" times, services had been lagging, interrupting key classroom hours.

"The speeds are quick when you are able to connect well, the downside is, we are seeing a bit of lag," she said.

"We are finding slow speeds at peak times, but apparently that will improve as more people connect (to the network)."

Ms Donaghy said WA could experience more issues with satellite, as more people sign up.

"WA has been a bit slower to jump on board," she said.

"My advice is to pick a provider to the value you want."

Ms Donaghy hoped WA would get more installation technicians, as her installer had travelled from Esperance and had no local knowledge.

"He installed it, but we still had to find out how to connect to our network after the fact," she said.

"I hope WA will get a customer service person to call within the State, that is a big thing, as the time difference makes it more difficult to get assistance."

Telstra WA area general manager Boyd Brown, who attended the conference, said it had surprised him that regional families still relied heavily on the radio network.

"We heard a lot of issues around faults with it and parts needed replacing," Mr Brown said.

"We have a few sites north of Kalgoorlie, that I am aware of that have issues, but not to the same volume (as the east coast).

"I didn't realise on the land this is how you home school and what went into that – it's an amazing effort.

"Telecommunications was high on the agenda, but you would expect nothing less with a group that is strongly promoting distance education – telecommunications is a big part in that."

Mr Brown said the conference gave him an insight into the daily life of remote people and he would take the discussions on board.

"There was a high level of understanding about technology with all of these members, they know what is good and what's not," he said.

"I took away from today, that it is critical that we have access to the technology and I am keen to understand more about the radio network.

"We have got some feedback and we are already working on what we're going to do."

The second day was centred around secondary and post compulsory education.

Chairwoman of the Senate Education and Employment Legislation Committee Bridget McKenzie spoke about the barriers faced by rural and remote students in accessing higher education.

Ms McKenzie said it was a well-known fact that regional Australians were under-represented at university.

"For too long accessing higher education from regional Australia has been a welfare issue whereas it should be about equity, " Ms McKenzie said.

She outlined the number one barrier to achieving a higher education qualification was the financial burden associated with relocation and accommodation as well as problems accessing on-line technologies and lower aspirations.

ICPA past State and federal president Roxanne Morrissey, formally of Thundelarra station, Yalgoo, was presented with life membership for her services to the association at the conference.