First Nations woman Tammy Abala would love all of her four children to be educated on-country, on the Tiwi Islands off Darwin.
"There's life lessons that they've learnt throughout their schooling on-country that they can't get anywhere else," she said.
But due to the high staff turnover and other structural educational issues in their remote community, Ms Abala said she had to make the difficult decision to send her children to boarding schools at various points in their education.
"It just has gotten to the point where the opportunities in the quality of education has meant we've had to change strategy with our own children, and we feel really sad about that."
She said while local teachers do their best, they were often not supported to stay long term.
"It's a non-alignment of methodologies and the pedagogies that are needed to really give access in a way that suits Aboriginal kids," she said.
"A lot of that comes from time spent on-country, and if we're getting teachers who come and go, we are never really getting that learned on-country cultural experience to improve the teacher's impact."
But she said teachers needed to be assisted to improve, not blamed.
"They're doing the best they can and they're often understaffed and under-resourced — there's some really good people in there, but they need support."
HECS debt to be waived
One way the federal government is moving to support those teachers, is by waiving their HECS debt.
Schools in remote areas are in desperate need of teachers, and those willing to make the move — and stay for four years — will now be able to apply to have their HECS debts waived.
The initiative was passed by Scott Morrison's government in 2019, as part of its response to Closing the Gap, but this is the first year teachers will be eligible as they need to have taught remotely for four years since 2019.
Education minister Jason Clare said it would apply to around 300 primary and high schools across the country, as well as about 150 preschools and day-care centres.
"Whatever HECS you have owing, if you work in a remote country town for four years, then we'll scrap that debt," he said.
The scheme will be available to teachers working in Indigenous and non-Indigenous schools, as long as they are considered to be "Very Remote" by the Australian Bureau of Statistics.
But Mr Clare said it could be expanded in the future to take in regional schools.
"If it works, if it has the impact that we want it to have and if it encourages more teachers to head to more remote schools, then I'm happy to look at how we might be able to expand this," he said.
More support needed for teachers
Arnhem Land teacher Daniel McLaren said any incentive that might lead to teachers staying for longer in remote communities would be good for both the students and the teachers.
He agreed the constant churn of teachers to remote schools was impeding students' learning.
"The language barrier is a big thing and it takes a while for people to work out how to best teach students that speak English as a second, third or fourth language, and the only time they speak English really is at school," he said.
But he said the scheme should be coupled with better ongoing support for teachers working in very remote areas.
"Maybe some kind of program that touches base with teachers across their career path and allows them a chance to leave their community … and have personal development with experts around teaching remote and teaching English as an additional language," he said.
"Then even prior to coming out, having proper sort of cultural competency training for all teachers that are going in teaching at community schools."
Tammy Abala agreed better cultural training throughout their teaching qualification would benefit the teachers and the children in remote communities.
"Then when they arrive they actually can have an impact from the get go, we don't have to wait four years in for them to be trained up by the community," she said.
"They need to be trained up and immersed before they begin."
Teacher shortage worst in '20-plus years'
Andrew Gravestocks, principal at Ceduna Area School said despite some teachers at his school becoming eligible for the HECS refund, many still did not know about it.
"From my perspective, I'm certainly hoping that it works really well for those who are eligible so that we can get some good publicity and encourage others to take it up as well."
He said even with the scheme, the teacher shortage had never been worse.
National education department modelling confirms this, showing demand for secondary school teachers will outstrip graduates by more than 4,000 teachers in the next three years.
"Certainly this year is the toughest year in my 20-plus years as a principal finding teachers," he said.
"We're still looking for a couple right now and know so many other schools at this point in time — it's widespread; rural and metro."
Mr Clare acknowledged the measure wouldn't solve all the problems facing the remote education sector.
"We've got to test this and see what the real impact of it will be. But it's not a panacea. It's not going to do everything," he said.
"We don't have enough people wanting to become teachers and we've got too many people leaving the profession they love.
"This is one of the things we need to do, but we need to lift wages.
"We need to reduce the workload of teachers."
'I would definitely recommend it'
Mr McLaren worried that such a scheme might attract people just coming out for "the money-making, money-saving benefits".
But for anyone with a passion for teaching and learning, he cannot recommend the move highly enough.
"So, if you like the outdoors, fishing and camping and exploring new places, beautiful country, and then the kids are just amazing … their zest for life and connection to culture and country and their willingness to teach you about their culture — they're just a great, great bunch of kids and community as well," he said.
"I would definitely recommend it to anyone who would like an adventure and learn something new and maybe have one of the best experiences of their lives."
