WHAT is often referred to as the largest classroom in the world, the School of the Air is still just as relevant today as it was at its inception seven decades ago, according to a former student.
It’s been 70 years since Alice Springs School of the Air’s first broadcast on June 8, 1951. Today, teachers sit in a studio and stream lessons through the internet, (but originally used the two-way radio) to primary school aged children in far-flung regions.
In Alice Springs alone, it covers 1.3 million sqkm with an average of 100 students enrolled each year.
Lawyer, author and former student during the late 1960s and early 1970s Tanya Heaslip said School of the Air “offered a connection to the outside world that we bush kids otherwise wouldn’t have had”.
Ms Heaslip grew up on a remote cattle station in Outback Central Australia and learnt about the outside world through the correspondence school lessons and then half an hour each day on the two-way radio. She only saw her teacher and classmates from other areas once a year.
“I already had my siblings, dogs and horses, and we made our own fun with our imagination, but getting to speak to a teacher and other kids was incredibly exciting,” she said.
“We couldn’t see their faces but we heard their voices and we painted pictures around their voices as to what they looked like. Their voices were our chance to connect with the outside world.”
Ms Heaslip said she remembered the struggles of having conversations with the teacher, Mrs Hodder, through the radio static but they all eventually became proficient in understanding through the noise.
School of the Air was the brainchild of Adelaide Miethke, who helped set up School of the Air 70 years ago in Alice Springs.
Over the years School of the Air has changed and become more modern. Technology has evolved from radio transmissions to video conferencing via satellite internet.
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“They don’t have to contend with static and they have several get-togethers a year,” Ms Heaslip said.
During the outbreak of Covid-19, people called into School of the Air from all over the world, seeking advice and assistance on how to remotely educate their children.
“For bush kids it’s as important as ever, because that issue of being isolated means that it’s really hard when you have to go into the outside world and you haven’t connected with other children,” Ms Heaslip said.
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