Online Parliament in Schools program 'not about replacing school visits to Canberra'

Garry Watson is the project leader for the National Capital Educational Tourism Project, which works to encourage as many school children to visit Canberra as possible.

"The PEO [Parliamentary Education Office] have been doing online programs and outreach programs for years," Mr Watson said.

"The truth is, the online and outreach actually encourage more schools to visit. They don't see it as a substitute. They actually go, 'We'd actually like to do the real thing'."

"It's not either/or, it's and/all. Every engagement you have encourages visitation, it doesn't cut visitation."

School visits have in past years seen as many as 172,000 children visit Canberra, generating $150 million for the local economy. This year, after two years of COVID interruptions, that figure will be closer to 70,000, generating $68 million.

Speaker of the House of Representatives Milton Dick this week launched the Parliament in Schools program - "an initiative to make civics education accessible to students regardless of their location".

He was visiting five schools across Western Australia to help launch the program.

Queensland-based Mr Dick maintained the program was not to replace in-person school visits to Canberra.

"The program is not a replacement to other programs, it is an extension to well-established [Parliamentary Education Office] onsite, digital and outreach education programs already available to schools across Australia," a statement from his office read.

It is delivered in collaboration with the Parliamentary Education Office nation-wide.

The Parliament in Schools program, Mr Dick said, was "an extension to well-established PEO onsite, digital and outreach education programs already available to schools across Australia":

"It is my priority to improve civics education across the country; to empower our citizens to know just how precious our democracy is and how important our institutions are," Mr Dick said.

"It is a real joy to see younger Australians owning their democracy One day, they'll be running the country and empowering people, no matter their background or circumstances. They could be the speaker, the prime minister or leader of the opposition.

"Every Australian school student deserves to understand and be given the opportunity to claim a stake in our nation's - and their own - future.

"This is why I want to extend the reach of PEO programs - to cast the net wider for more schools."

In 2021-22, 19,468 students from 347 schools across Australia participated in an onsite PEO program at Parliament House.

"But not all students will get the opportunity to travel all the way to Canberra. This is why we are taking this program on the road, and bringing it to them," Mr Dick said.

Mr Watson said, in the past, as many as 150 schools a year from WA visited Canberra. But post- COVID that had dwindled to a handful.

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"They want to come," he said.

"For WA, the package also includes going to the snow. That may sound trite, but for kids who've never seen snow before, it's pretty interesting. Schools from the Northern Territory and Far North Queensland do the same.

"But they still see the number one thing the visit to Canberra and there's been good local MPs in Western Australia who've encouraged the trips. And there's good tour operators in WA.

"It'll take a while to come back, because the lockdown was worst in Western Australia, in terms of travelling. And the further the distance, the harder the infrastructure.

"But I'm talking to tour operators there and they are quite optimistic about returning."