Opinion & Commentary
Authorities must not wag school
The just released National Assessment Program – Literacy and Numeracy (NAPLAN) results for this year confirm the Northern Territory remains far behind the rest of Australia in educating its children.
Failure rates approaching 40% of all NT students means that, once again, virtually 100% of the Territory’s Aboriginal students did not meet the national minimum standards for reading, writing or arithmetic. A contributing cause to these poor results are shorter school years, school weeks and school days, common in remote schools with mainly Aboriginal students.
Homeland Learning Centres lose eight weeks – almost 25% of the school year – while their staff attend courses for the first and last weeks of each term. Despite repeated requests for Homeland Learning Centres to have full-time teachers for the full school day, most still get qualified teachers only a few days a week for a few hours a day.
Remote Queensland schools also have shorter school years and weeks than the better performing metropolitan schools.
The limited school year is further eroded by cultural festivals and sports events regularly scheduled during school hours.
The commonwealth government is a serious offender with its Community Festivals for Education Engagement program. Under this program, 13 indigenous festivals are being held this year, in country locations in NSW, Victoria, Queensland, South Australia, Western Australia and the Northern Territory.
With the exception of Broome, all are held during term time rather than during school holidays. They range from two to nine days. Festival activities include music, songwriting and storytelling, film, singing, writing, sport, dance and art. Students leave school during term time to attend government-funded festivals to learn ‘it’s fun to be at school every day’ and ‘to achieve a higher standard of reading and writing and maths.’
As in previous years, the successful Garma Festival ran this year during the school term in August. Many children lost up to two weeks’ schooling. It would take little effort to reschedule next year’s Garma dates to the July school holidays. Financial sponsors of the festival, including the commonwealth and Northern Territory governments and high-profile private companies, should ensure this change is made.
In contrast to governments that preach education while undermining attendance, the Central Desert Shire in the Northern Territory has taken the lead in encouraging school attendance. With high proportions of Aborigines in the schools in its jurisdiction, the shire has courageously decided that ‘sponsorship, shire-managed sporting facilities and in-kind support from shire employees, such as sports and recreation officers, will only be available for events that take place over a long weekend or outside the school term.’
The Central Desert Shire argues: ‘Today, many schoolchildren in the shire, our future leaders and workers, miss out on school time for weeks at a time because sports carnivals are held during school term.’
Shire president Norbert Patrick says: ‘In a region where school attendance and education outcomes are the worst in Australia this is wholly unacceptable. We are calling on other organisations (that) support sports and cultural festivals, for example royalty associations and government sponsors, to follow our lead.’
Adds Central Desert Shire Council chief executive Rowan Foley: ‘Our future managers and workers are missing out on the education they need in order to take over from non-Aboriginal staff.
‘At the same time, there is a lack of organised activities for schoolchildren during the school holidays. Moving sports carnivals into the school holiday period will help to solve both problems.’
Royalty meetings, which have a similar effect, should also be held during public holidays and school holidays, Foley says. The Yuendumu community has taken a lead by holding its sport carnival during a long weekend.
The lead of the Central Desert Shire Council in recognising that sport and cultural events should not be held during term time is seminal because it shows that Aborigines are recognising the source of their disadvantage and taking steps to end them.
Reviews and reports do not improve conditions in remote Aboriginal settlements. However, practical measures that Aborigines take themselves make long-lasting improvements. The sponsors of cultural and festival activities during school time must face the fact they are damaging Aboriginal children’s education.
It’s time for the other Territory shire councils and for governments at all levels in Australia to follow the Central Desert Shire’s lead. Three cheers for the Central Desert Shire!
Emeritus professor Helen Hughes is a Senior Fellow for The Centre for Independent Studies. Mark Hughes is an independent researcher.
