Ideas@TheCentre
First things first ... Priorities in Indigenous education
Professor Larissa Behrendt released a report last week recommending doubling the proportion of Indigenous students at universities. Currently, 1.09% of university students are Indigenous, and Behrendt argues that the target should be 2.2% to match the Indigenous share of the working-age population in Australia.
But the focus should not be on achieving meaningless targets. Already we have a plethora of programs aimed at closing the ‘gap’ between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians.
The programs are pointless because if there are improvements in Indigenous outcomes, there are also corresponding improvements in non-Indigenous outcomes – so the ‘gap’ never narrows.
It is no good coming at the problem from the wrong end. Instead of lofty targets, government should be improving education standards in remote and underperforming ‘residual’ schools so that children leave school with the education to go on to university if they choose.
Universities should not be encouraged to increase the number of students they enrol by lowering standards and creating ‘sub-degree’ courses. This sends the wrong message to Aboriginal students – that they are inferior to non-Indigenous students.
Already just 40% of enrolled Indigenous students complete their degrees (compared to 70% of non-Indigenous students). We should not lower the bar further so more Indigenous students experience such failure. What we need to do is ensure that the primary and secondary schools that Indigenous students attend are delivering results. If children are not taught to read, write and count, they have no hope of going to university. No amount of affirmative action will make any difference.
Most Aboriginal students (80%) attend mainstream schools and pass NAPLAN, and many of them leave school to go onto higher education. This indicates that the poor educational outcomes of some Indigenous students is not because of their ethnicity but because the schools they attend are failing to teach them properly. While many Indigenous students come from disadvantaged backgrounds, this should not be used as an excuse for school failure.
Initiatives such as Noel Pearson’s Family Responsibilities Commission and ‘direct instruction’ academies show that when parents are given the right support, they can become more responsible for their children’s education, and when children are given the right instruction they can learn. School attendance at the Cape York Aboriginal Academy in Aurukun is up from around 38% in 2009 to around 70%, while a majority of students are either approaching or exceeding national benchmarks.
Halls Creek in Western Australia is now considering a Pearson-type welfare model; Bess Price, the newly elected Member for Stuart in the NT Legislative Assembly, has also indicated that she would like to see one in the Northern Territory. Improving teaching practices and attendance will have a much greater influence on the numbers of Indigenous students attending university than establishing ‘sub-degree’ courses and pointless targets.
Sara Hudson is a Research Fellow at The Centre for Independent Studies.
