The Royal Flying Doctor Service and The School of the Air

After our drive through the Red Desert, we arrive in Alice Springs.  It's not a large city, but after miles of barren land, it feels like a metropolis.   So we have just driven hundreds of miles through what is basically a desert.  

Here's something that falls under the category of 'things I never considered'.  What do you do for medical care if the nearest humans are 80 miles away? I’m a city person.  My doctor is a half-mile away.  I just never think about it.

Australians do.  In 1928, they established the Royal Flying Doctor Service (RFDS) for 24-hour emergency help in remote areas.  I first heard about the Doctor Service in Cervantes, (on the way to the Pinnacles, mentioned in one of my earlier posts) where the town of 600 people couldn’t sustain a full-time doctor. 

The RFDS today depends on medical chests in each Outback home, two-way radios, cell phones, and small planes. Last time I checked, they did not depend on computers.*  Twenty-one bases and sixty-one planes provide medical care to over 270,000 patients spread out over 75% of the country. The RFDS provides advice via radio,  arranges patient transfers, and conducts health clinics (dental, mental, and physical) for the sparsely populated areas of the country.  I think about my doctor a half mile away and I have to admit, the RFDS is a very impressive operation.  Check their web site: http://www.flyingdoctor.org.au

Soooo I’m thinking the School of the Air is pilot training for the RFDS?

Nope.

In a unique program to standardize education in the far-flung outposts of the country, Australia started using the RFDS two-way radios (already in every remote home) for lessons.  Eventually the school moved to its own radio base, covering about 1.4 million square miles. At the time of my visit, mail and radio lessons were the main methods of communication.   Once a year teachers visited their students and pupils made a trip to the remote school.

A 1998 Alice Springs postcard of the School of the Air showing a teacher at a remote base, an annual school visit, and a radio lesson underway.

I listen to a recorded lesson. The speaker can’t hear while transmitting, so one person speaks at a time. Children sat at their radios for roll call and the teacher asked one sleepy-sounding child,  ‘Did you just wake up, Johnny?” He answered, “I hab a code.”  All the children murmur sympathetic comments.  I notice he wasn't excused from the lesson. 

Technology has changed the School of the Air since my first trip to Australia.   The RFDS still relies on the two-way radio and/or cell phone; but a satellite network has replaced the School of the Air with The School of Distance Education.  It has a Sydney hub, five main teaching studios, and hundreds of sites throughout the remote territories.  Video cameras, electronic whiteboards, and email enable near-real-time interaction and rapid feedback.  Online learning never seemed so valuable.

For more information visit: The School of the Air Story  or one of the regional sites like A Day in the Life of an 8-year old School of the Air Student .

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* As I have mentioned, I write my blog based on my travel journals and notes, so while writing, I do additional research to make sure my info is up to date.  My first trip to AU was a while ago.  There have been changes.  That's a good thing.  But I notice there emphasis for provision of care still does not fall on computers.