COMMENT: The white School of the Air

Ah, the School of the Air, staple myth of the Australian Outback. However, as Bill Bryson discovers, it’s not for everyone…

…I also read a little booklet I had bought where I was frankly taken aback to discover that each child spends only half an hour a day (actually, 'up to half an hour a day') on the radio, plus ten minutes a week in a private tutorial with their teachers – hardly a lavish amount of personal attention. For the rest, they are expected to spend five to six hours a day working under the supervision of a parent or nanny. The students also make use of televisions, VCRs and personal computers, but I didn't see any sign of them. The conclusion to which you are reluctantly but inescapably drawn is that it is forever 1951 at the School of the Air.

The real surprise, however, was that there seemed to be no Aboriginal children involved – certainly none were evident in the photographs. The population of the Northern Territory is about 20 per cent Aboriginal overall, but in the far outback the proportion is much higher. I asked the man about that on my way out.
'Oh, there are some,' he said. 'I'm not sure how many just at the moment, but there are a few. The problem is that the pupils have to be supervised by a competent adult, you see.'
I waited a moment, then said: 'I'm sorry, I don't see.'
'They need a reliable, conscientious adult with core language and reading skills.'
'And Aboriginal parents don’t have that?'
He looked unhappy, as if this was a route we really shouldn't be travelling down. 'No, I’m afraid not. Not always.’

'But if you’re not giving the kids the lessons because the parents can't help them, then those kids, when they become parents, won’t have the core skills either, will they?'
'Yes, it's a problem.'
'And so it will just go on for ever?'
'It's a very big problem.'
'I see,' I said, though of course I didn't really see at all.

(Bill Bryson, p. 279)