The Priority Country Area Program (PCAP) is a community-based rural education program, jointly administered by the Department of Education and Training and the Queensland Catholic Education Commission.

Funds are targeted to students in government and non-government schools to improve learning outcomes by providing educational, social, and cultural opportunities which are normally difficulty to access in rural and remote areas.

A PCAP Issues Paper was developed and given to key stakeholders such as the Queensland Council of Parents and Citizens’ Associations (QCPCA), Isolated Children’s Parents’ Association (ICPA), Federation of Parents and Friends Associations, Queensland Catholic Education Commission (QCEC) and the Department of Education and Training (DET).

During the consultation phase, stakeholders overwhelmingly agreed that basing eligibility on shire boundaries was unfair and that other criteria should be used.

Approximately 26 per cent of PCAP funding was spent on administrative costs and stakeholders agreed that this was excessive and should be changed.

Stakeholders were also critical of the submission process and thought it was unnecessary to write funding submissions each year for what was essentially recurrent funding.

What changes will be implemented as a result of the review?

A new funding program, the Rural and Remote Education Access Program (RREAP), will replace PCAP.

Due to a decrease in administrative costs, more schools will be able to access the new funding program.

During consultation, most respondents agreed that the administration costs were too high and that any savings made should be reinvested into the program to allow more schools to access funding.

Decision-making on most of the funding will be made at the local school and School Cluster Committee (SCC) level. School Cluster Committees replace Local Area Committees. They will be made up of a principal and parent organisation representative from each school in the cluster. Clusters will be determined by schools during the transition.

It is also recommended that funding be set aside to hold an annual Rural and Remote Education conference where new ideas and innovative projects can be shared.

The new program will start from 1 January 2012. The transition from the PCAP structure to the RREAP structure will take place during 2011.