Opinion & Commentary
Making remote schools work will take commitment
Indigenous illiteracy and non-numeracy has been recognised as a problem in Australia for more than 20 years. But government targets have gone backwards from ‘fix the problem in four years’ in 1997 to ‘fix half the problem in 10 years’ in 2008. The failure of government policy is the result of insisting that illiteracy and non-numeracy reflect an ethnic ‘gap’ between Indigenous and non-Indigenous students.
The National Assessment Program—Literacy and Numeracy (NAPLAN) tests of children in school Years 3, 5, 7 and 9 in 2008 proved that there is no such ‘gap’. But the tests showed a chasm between the literacy and numeracy of children attending remote Indigenous schools and all other Australian children.
In Victoria, Tasmania and the Australian Capital Territory where there are no remote schools, Indigenous children’s results are the same as for non Indigenous children. About 10% of all children either did not sit tests or failed them. But for Indigenous students in remote New South Wales schools failure rates were 25%, in Western Australia, South Australia and Queensland they were 50% and in the Northern Territory they were 75%. When children not sitting are added to those failing, in the Northern Territory almost 100% of children in remote Indigenous school failed all numeracy and literacy tests.
NAPLAN results show that Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children who attend mainstream schools in Victoria, Tasmania, and the Australian Capital Territory have mainstream achievement levels. While a handful of exceptional remote schools work to mainstream standards, non-performing remote schools deprive their students of the life skills that every Australian needs. Low achievement is not a problem of Indigenous children but of non-performing remote schools.
The physical infrastructure of remote schools ranges from recently constructed or refurbished high standard and well-equipped schools to ones that are a disgrace to Australia. While some separate lower standard buildings and poor equipment are evident in remote Indigenous schools in all states, Commonwealth Assistance for Isolated Children allowances, only available where there are no government schools, are paid to parents of children attending Homeland Learning Centres.
Many Homeland Learning Centres are built of unlined corrugated iron, and do not have electricity or ablutions blocks. Unpainted walls and shutters make for gloomy interiors. Septic tank toilet blocks remain a rarity; ‘long drop’ dunnies are common. Classrooms are typically fewer and smaller than in normal schools. In some schools, there would not be enough desks and chairs if all the enrolled children actually turned up.
Separate, sub-standard curriculums and limited teaching capacities are a second characteristic of non-performing remote schools. Dumbed-down curriculums do not develop literacy and maths skills by building on successive blocks of knowledge.
Many children are not learning English in early school years though worldwide research indicates that young children learn languages more easily than older children. Many bilingual programs are thus in effect non-lingual with children not becoming literate in any language. Incentives that reward school attendance have a role to play, but truancy is a matter of law and attendance must be enforced.
A few exceptional remote schools that follow mainstream curriculums exist. Some dysfunctional parents fail to send their children to school, but many concerned parents are aware that their children are not being educated. They see that their children are only at school a few hours a day, a few days a week and that the remote school year is much shorter than that of other schools. Prolonged funerals take children out of school but so do festivals scheduled in term time. The reinstatement of permits has hidden non performing schools from most Australians but not from parents.
Early in 2008 the Commonwealth government provided nearly $100 million in additional funding for NT education. Fifty of the 200 Commonwealth funded teachers that were to be added by 2011 were supposed to be in place by September 2008. The states and the Northern Territory have also increased funding for Indigenous education. But there have been no substantive policy changes.
The failures of remote education are systemic. Current government approaches fail because they are not evidence-based. Homeland Learning Centres in the Northern Territory clearly indicate that separate is not equal. Where there are sufficient numbers of students, Homeland Learning Centres must be transformed into schools with full-time qualified teachers. Alternatives must be found for smaller groups of children. If they cannot be taught by distance education, like other small groups of Australian children, they will have to be bussed, boarded Monday to Friday, or boarded during term time. Alternatively, their parents must move to larger centres during term time.
Throughout Australia, policy reform must tackle inadequate buildings and equipment, introduce mainstream curriculums and teaching standards, and apply standard administrative rules in some 200 non-performing remote schools that are only a very small proportion of Australia’s more than 9,600 schools, But departments of education must take back the responsibility for running their schools from unqualified staff and community activists to ensure that education priorities are met. Assistant teachers cannot be left hanging. They can either be employed as teachers’ aides or enrolled in courses that will give them nationally recognised teaching qualifications.
School choice is essential for raising standards. Where communities chose to establish an independent school, their decision should be supported by education departments. And, the federal government’s election promise to publish individual school-by-school results must be implemented so parents are to be able to evaluate schooling alternatives.
Aboriginal and Torres Islander children in remote communities must not be viewed as ‘different’ from other Australian children. So long as cultural traits justify the removal of children from mainstream literacy and numeracy, science, and humanities classes, remote schools will fail. A three-year timetable is realistic if there is the political will to transform non-performing schools and bring remote Indigenous literacy and numeracy to mainstream levels. Non-specific targets and decade-long timeframes are no longer acceptable. Australia has the resources, and it must find the political will to transform non-performing schools. All Australian children deserve the same high standards of education.
Emeritus Professor Helen Hughes is a senior fellow of The Centre for Independent Studies. Mark Hughes is an independent researcher. Their report Revisiting Indigenous Education is published by CIS.
