Media Releases
No Excuses Schooling Needed to End High Indigenous Failure Rates
The bottom 150 schools in Australia are nearly all Indigenous schools when ranked using the 2009 NAPLAN results, highlights a new report released by The Centre for Independent Studies (CIS) this week.
In Indigenous Education 2010, Professor Helen Hughes, Senior Research Fellow at the CIS and independent researcher Mark Hughes argue that without changes to inept education policies, 40% of Indigenous students will continue to fail to meet national minimum standards.
“Years of poor policies have denied Indigenous students a good education,” says Prof Hughes.
The causes of high Indigenous student failure rates are already well understood: inadequate school facilities, short school hours, and separate Indigenous curriculums. Cargo cult welfare contributes by suggesting that Indigenous students do not need education.
“Identifying problems is essential, but it is not enough. The governments Indigenous Education Action Plan should include quantifiable improvement targets to 2014.”
The publication of NAPLAN results on the My School website provides the evidence base for policy change. It shows that special programs in Indigenous schools are not working. The new National Curriculum, with its more effective literacy and numeracy teaching combined with more face-to-face teaching, could lead to substantially improved Indigenous results.
Lower expectations of Indigenous students by education systems, parents and students have been identified as major causes of poor achievement.
Effective adult literacy and numeracy classes are needed for the thousands of young Indigenous men and women who have left school without an education.
Current welfare is not structured to encourage attendance and achievement. Jenny Macklin’s extension of income management is a step in the right direction. More needs to be done.
“Disciplined, no excuses schooling combined with a mainstream curriculum is the way to ensure high Indigenous failure rates become a distant memory.”
Professor Hughes is a Senior Research Fellow at The Centre for Independent Studies and Mark Hughes is an independent researcher. They are available for comment. The report is available at: www.cis.org.au/policy_monographs/pm110.pdf
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