Indigenous-Education-Review_DRAFT

Review of Indigenous Education in the Northern Territory
Bruce Wilson
including Self‐Managed Schools, Community Controlled Schools, Education Boards, Remote Learning
Partnership Agreements (RLPAs) and more recently the Community and School Partnership
Agreements. The Government now has, in addition, a policy for Community Driven Schools.
Commentary provided suggests that there has been a genuine intent by all parties to achieve better
outcomes for Indigenous students. Despite this, where outcomes were achieved they have not been
sustained. As one contributor to the review indicated:
although… the establishment of RLPAs resulted in more relevant delivery of education services in
these communities, the changes were not long lasting and were swallowed up in the next phase
of reforms…., leaving those communities feeling disenfranchised, and…result[ing] in
disengagement (Review contributor).
The evidence available to this review suggests that the Learning Lessons goal to improve partnership
and greater local ownership in education has gained little traction, particularly at the system level. The
Review has heard stories of success with local level partnerships, but feedback from the Northern
Territory Indigenous Education Council (NTIEC) and others suggests that there is limited impact on
education policy and planning. Neither the Council nor the Department seems impressed with the
outcomes to date on engagement and partnership actions.
What is apparent from the feedback received is that at the system and school and community levels,
the goal of community engagement remains elusive.
Early Years
Collins (1999) acknowledged the critical importance of the early acquisition of literacy: ‘….children who
fall behind are unlikely to catch up and in fact are more likely to find the gap widening in secondary
school’ (ibid: 96). Schooling culture, particularly in remote locations, would need to be developed and
supported. Collins found that many schools were lacking the techniques and resources to assist them in
working with very young children in the attainment of reading and writing skills. Further, the
engagement of families in early literacy acquisition was considered essential, and at the time of
Learning Lessons a number of trial programs were running in very remote communities, involving
parent participation in the schooling experience (ibid: 97).
DRAFT
The policy at the time of Learning Lessons made the provision of early childhood and pre‐school
experiences difficult for remote schools. Obstacles included inability to staff according to the formulae,
lack of early childhood education skills or experience among the teachers and a lack of appropriate
infrastructure in many of the schools.
Learning Lessons called for guaranteed access to play centres and preschools for all children in the three
to five year age group, with multipurpose centres to include child health and child care services:
By providing the necessary space, props and developmentally appropriate activities, literacy and
numeracy understandings will be developed that will assist the transition into the artificial and
disciplined world of the classroom and its modes of instruction, making the transition to school
more continuous and ultimately more successful (Collins 1999:99).
By 2005 the Australian and Northern Territory Governments were funding initiatives to increase access
to early years programs throughout the Northern Territory. The Learning Lessons Implementation
Status Report described the mobile preschools initiative and a rollout of childcare facilities and
community initiatives to provide health promotion, care and early learning. Information provided for
this Review indicates that effort in the early years has been an ongoing priority for Governments.
Through Universal Access to early years learning the Northern Territory can now demonstrate that 90%
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