Indigenous-Education-Review_DRAFT

Review of Indigenous Education in the Northern Territory
Bruce Wilson
lives of a succession of Parliaments; in human terms, over a generation or more. Unless the
Northern Territory maintains a consistent approach for an extended period, it will not achieve its
goals.
The obstacles faced by the Territory in achieving a high quality education for all its children are not a
reason to lower ambition; they are a reason to raise and focus the effort. This will require difficult
decisions, changes in established practice and challenges to long‐held beliefs. These things are worth
doing because the children who are the point of this review have the same right to a high quality
education as all other Australian children. They have the right to an education that gives them power
over their lives.
Learning Lessons
The last major review of Indigenous education in the Northern Territory was the Collins review,
Learning Lessons. The review reported in 1999, presenting 151 recommendations to government. By
2005, 82 had been implemented fully and 51 were partially implemented with ongoing action.
Seventeen recommendations were assessed as being superseded by new policy or legislation, and
one, departmental housing for local recruits, had not had any government action (LLISC, 2005: 7 and
64). The Learning Lessons review has provided a baseline for our work.
Discussion and recommendations
This review aims to illustrate the kind of strategic approach it proposes for the Department of
Education. Where ambitious efforts have clearly failed it is proposed that they stop. Where
resources are limited, it does not propose unrealistic demands. Where solving a problem is beyond
the capacity of the Department, the report says so.
The approach is evident in three characteristics of the discussion and recommendations in the Draft
Report.
1. They are pragmatic. The review makes recommendations based on what is repeatable across
multiple sites and hundreds of classrooms, on what an actual workforce can realistically deliver
in the Northern Territory.
DRAFT
2. The recommendations do not address everything to do with Indigenous education. They cover a
relatively small number of major issues and seek to point the way forward for each. The focus is
on those areas where action is most needed, most likely to achieve significant improvement and
likely to require a manageable level of resourcing.
3. The recommendations involve difficult judgments about where to put effort, energy and
resources and, correspondingly, where to pull back. This reflects the view of strategy taken in
this report: it is as much about what you choose not to do as what you choose to do.
The headings below correspond to the sections of the report. In each case a brief summary of the
discussion is provided and any recommendations arising from that section are included.
What we can control
The report begins with a caveat. Before discussing opportunities for improvement, it is important to
recognise the limits of the reach of education in achieving outcomes for Indigenous young people.
The review identifies areas in which they experience substantial disadvantage, including health,
social conditions in some families and communities (e.g. use of drug and alcohol), nutrition,
developmental difficulties, non‐English speaking backgrounds and low levels of adult education.
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