The Australian Government's contribution through the CAP is complementary to other sources of funding to support quality learning outcomes. CAP funds are not to be used as a substitute for funding resources or services, which are the responsibility of education systems, other agencies and providers. CAP funds are intented to enable education services and initiatives to meet the particular needs of rural students and are not intended to replace funding that would normally be provided to schools through General Recurrent Grants or Capital Grants Programs.

CAP funds are available for activities in the following project types:

• Curriculum enrichment: Accessing activities which complement, support and enrich the curriculum for geographically isolated primary and secondary school students such as:
  • excursions and hosting visits; where the costs associated with excursions and visits are greater for geographically isolated students 
  • provision of support for subjects such as Languages Other Than English (LOTE), music and sporting events; access to which is difficult for geographically isolated students
  • transition activities which support secondary students in making the transition to further education, training and work (post school pathways) including VET in schools and work experience.  
• Information and Communication Technology: The provision of ICT which will enable geographically isolated students to be confident, creative and productive users of the new technologies, particularly information and communication technologies, and understand the impact of those technologies on society. CAP’s role is to enhance education system responsibilities in the application of technology to teaching and learning
• Professional development: Professional development and support which addresses particular development needs of teachers in geographically isolated areas. The provision of professional support will help to attract and retain teachers. This activity may have multiple components including course costs, the supply of relief staff and travel costs
• Promotion of CAP: The promotion of information to inform CAP school communities including the evaluation, documentation and dissemination of information regarding Program activities with emphasis, as appropriate, on best practice. Note that it is a requirement that all information dissemination including information on State/NT education authority websites include acknowledgement that CAP is an Australian Government initiative
• Purchase of tangible items: CAP funds are supplementary and therefore are not intended for the purchase of capital items. Capital items are defined as tangible items costing over, for example, $5,000. Where a school can satisfy itself that the purchase of equipment (such as a computer, musical instruments, tools, library books etc) is consistent with the purposes of the Program, it may expend up to $5,000 on such items. For items of $5,000 or over, recipients must keep a register of assets. 

Note: sufficient detail must be included under ‘Details of Asset’ to enable identification of the Asset, eg make, model, colour, serial number, engine number, registration number etc.

A copy of the assets register must be provided to DEEWR in December 2010.