Rural Access Gap program

Addressing the digital divide between rural and metropolitan NSW public schools

The Rural Access Gap program was set up to address the growing digital divide between metropolitan and rural, regional and remote public schools in NSW. The program, supported by the Digital Restart fund, aimed to provide schools with learning and education opportunities equivalent to their metropolitan counterparts, through modern IT equipment, collaboration tools and professional learning, and upgraded infrastructure to provide faster and more reliable internet access.

Achievements

The RAG Program has enhanced the digital capacity of schools by enabling digital classrooms, leading digital improvements, making daily tasks easier and improving access to digital tools. The program has delivered:

• Support to 1,064 rural, regional and remote schools.​
• 22,255 additional student devices (improving the ratio of devices to students from 1:6 to 1:4).​
• 18,020 additional teacher devices (achieving a 1:1 ratio of devices to teachers).​
• 15,596 upgrades to learning spaces.​
• Internet upgrades for 1,027 schools.​
• Achieving the target connectivity speed of five megabytes per second to more than 200,000 students across the State.

Engagement

Shortly after the introduction of the RAG, the research team was tasked to measure the overall impact of the Program on teaching and learning experiences. A comprehensive baseline survey of teachers and Digital Classroom Officers from 81 schools revealed crucial insights into current ICT usage, challenges, digital maturity, and adoption stages, highlighting significant differences in perspectives between the two groups.​

Department leading the project

NSW Department of Education supported by the Digital Restart Fund.