Opinion & Commentary
The Northern Territory's performance in national literacy and numeracy testing
When we drew attention to the failures of Northern Territory schooling in April this year, our report Indigenous Education in the Northern Territory wasaccused of being‘poorly researched’ and ‘relying on sensationalist and emotive anecdotes of one-off instances’. The Northern Territory Minister for Education, Marion Scrymgour described our analysis as a ‘flimsy and selective diatribe about remote education in the Northern Territory’. The release of the 2008 national literacy and numeracy test results unfortunately vindicated our analysis.
The Northern Territory performed abysmally on every indicator. Queensland and Western Australia also had lower achievement levels, but they were not of the same crisis proportions as the Northern Territory. In these two states and the Northern Territory the failure to deliver mainstream education to children in welfare dependent Indigenous communities was the cause of poor performance.
Not all of these communities are remote. Some are in mainstream locations such as Darwin. Some poorly performing Aboriginal schools in remote areas are a short drive away from non-Indigenous schools that perform well.
Schools knew for months that benchmark testing would take place in mid-May 2008 and that testing would be compulsory. More than 95% per cent of students were tested throughout most of Australia. In the Northern Territory only about 80% of students participated in the tests. This suggests either very poor school attendance discipline, or that students who would fail were again discouraged from sitting the tests.
In all literacy and numeracy tests only 30 to 35% of Northern Territory students met national minimum standards. When those who did not participate are added, half the students in the Northern Territory failed to meet national minimum standards. In the rest of Australia less than 15% of students failed to meet the minimum standards.
Across Australia, parents are now receiving their children’s results. Northern Territory parents are anxiously waiting the posting on the internet of results by school, which Ms Scrymgour has promised. Understanding the causes of variations in benchmark test results requires school by school results, including the number of children covered as well as participation and outcomes.
Half of the Indigenous population works and lives in mainstream society. These Indigenous families send a disproportionately high number of their children to universities. These children’s school results are above average. Yet in the past all Indigenous children’s results have been merged, masking failures in Aboriginal schools in welfare dependent Indigenous communities.
To argue that there is an Indigenous educational gap is simply wrong. The gap is between the educational achievements of children – Indigenous and non-Indigenous - in mainstream schools, and performance in Aboriginal schools. Poor outcomes are not the result of ethnicity; but are the result of separatist educational policies.
When the results of non-Indigenous children and Indigenous children attending mainstream schools are removed from the Northern Territory results, more than 80% of children attending Aboriginal schools will again have failed to achieve minimum national standards. To distract from widespread failure, a few successful youngsters from Aboriginal schools are periodically paraded as having passed year 12. The success of a few cannot hide the fact that half the students in the Northern Territory cannot read the test result reports they will receive.
The Commonwealth Government has added 200 teachers to the Northern Territory, but there has been no provision for their housing in remote areas. The Northern Territory Government budgeted for two Homeland Learning Centres to be converted into schools in 2008. At this rate it will take 26 years to convert the remaining 52.
In remote areas heavy reliance on drive-in or fly-in teachers continues. These teachers do not regard it as part of their job to be in front of classes five days a week. A head teacher attempting to enforce daily teaching was recently moved by the Education Department to a less contentious position.
Separate Aboriginal curriculums are bilingual in name only. They do not teach children to read, write or count in any language. The lessons of countries such as the Netherlands, where English as a second language is so well taught that most people speak it fluently, have been ignored. So have the wishes of communities that have repeatedly stated that they take responsibility for teaching their children their traditional language, and want them taught the mainstream curriculum in English from pre-school.
Until the Northern Territory changes Indigenous educational policies in welfare dependent communities, Aboriginal children will remain locked into an illiterate life on welfare.
Emeritus Professor Helen Hughes is a senior fellow at the Centre for Independent Studies and Mark Hughes is an independent researcher
