THE hundreds of smiling faces in this morning’s Big Steps For Tiny Feet feature are just beginning the next great adventure in their lives.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
The start of school is a key moment in the life of every child – and every parent.
It’s fitting that we recognise such a milestone with a feature in the local paper, just as we have done for decades.
At the same time as these children are stepping into their schooling lives, hundreds more across Orana have begun their Year 12 studies – the final year of their schooling.
What happens between those moments are thousands of lessons, thousands of memories, thousands of good times and, probably, quite a few bad times as well.
That is the essence of life and it is the essence of education.
It is also the essence of opportunity, and that’s where the children in our feature perhaps have an edge over kindergarten students in other regional centres across the country.
The Dubbo district has a strong education base with four private or public high schools, the School of Distance Education and 16 primary schools.
There are many more schools across the wider Orana region.
The tertiary education sector is providing increased course options at the campus of the Western TAFE Institute and at the Charles Sturt University campus both in Dubbo.
This means today’s kindy kids could complete their entire education without ever leaving the region. And some will.
A strong education base brings benefits to the whole community.
All the educational facilities not only provide plenty of learning options but also employ plenty of staff whose wages help keep the local economy turning.
They also make Dubbo an attractive option for young families looking to make a new start – particularly those trying to leave the rat race of metropolitan centres.
Education is an important part of the infrastructure of the region’s economy.
Developing a well-educated, skilled home-grown workforce to meet the needs of our industries is a smarter approach than hiring talent from elsewhere. That is why growing the local education sector is on the radar of business and councils.
Our hundreds of kindy kids are taking their first tentative steps into the exciting, bigger world right now.
No wonder they are smiling.