The Minister made the comment in Armidale yesterday when she launched the results and recommendations of the largest education survey of rural and regional issues ever carried out in Australia.

The national survey was conducted last year by the national Centre of Science, ICT and Mathematics Education for Rural and Regional Australia (SiMERR), based at UNE.

The survey came in response to the fact that students in rural and regional schools have not been achieving to the same levels as their city counterparts in science, mathematics and information and communication technology subjects.

Responses were taken from 3000 primary and maths/science secondary teachers and 1000 parents.

The survey found that rural and regional schools had a higher annual staff turnover than city schools, fewer opportunities for their teachers' professional development and a greater unmet need of resources and support.

"Teachers, after parents, are the single most important determinant in a child's educational achievements," Mrs Bishop said.

"We know that teachers make all the difference in students' learning capabilities, particularly in science and mathematics, so we need to make sure our teachers are well prepared, well equipped and skilled to teach children."

The Minister proposed 'incentives and rewards' as a means of retaining teachers in the bush.

"We should look at incentive pay for the better performing teachers, we should pay teachers more to teach in rural and regional areas, we should reward teachers for working in the most challenging schools and reward them for the results they achieve."

Mrs Bishop said she had just received the report and could not comment on whether the Federal Government, having funded the project to investigate the problem, could contribute to the solution.

"There are 100 findings and many case studies and the recommendations should be taken seriously," she said.

"It comes down to resourcing and the quality of the teacher, so that's something that I would certainly want to address."