The House Standing Committee on Employment, Education and Training will inquire into and report on the education of students in remote communities and the role of culture, family, community and country in delivering better outcomes. The Inquiry will focus on but not be limited to consideration of:

• A child’s journey through early childhood, primary, secondary, vocational and tertiary education in remote communities, like the tri-border region of South Australia, Western Australia and the Northern Territory;

• Key barriers to the education journey, including the effects of environmental factors such as drought on families and communities;

• The role of culture and country in a child’s learning;

• Community and family structures that support a child’s education and their attendance at school;

• Effective government initiatives, past and present, that support remote communities to enable greater educational outcomes, including those that have improved attainment in literacy and numeracy;

• Innovative approaches to workforce, including recruitment, professional learning, retention and support, and lessons from communities that could be more generally applied;

• Access and support to deliver the Australian Curriculum (including STEM) in a flexible way to meet local learning needs and interests of remote students, including examples of innovative ways in which the curriculum is being delivered in remote schools; and

• Successful pathways to ensure students have the knowledge and skills they need to enter further education and the workforce.