Indigenous-Education-Review_DRAFT

Review of Indigenous Education in the Northern Territory
Bruce Wilson
The CFCs provide the department with an opportunity to pilot a flagship model for early
childhood services. At many of the communities the review visited, young mothers drop out
of school due to pregnancy and do not return. Given that level of maternal literacy is a key
predictor of a child’s future literacy attainment, CFCs could provide an opportunity for these
young women to re‐engage with educational options in a supportive environment.
Educational courses, childcare and parenting support could all be delivered through the
CFCs. This would assist existing programs. The FaFT Program Handbook, for example, makes
a clear commitment to integrated service delivery. The program:
works in collaboration with other agencies. Strong partnerships with health, shires,
schools, and other agencies are critical for the program success (DECS, 2013C: 10).
The notion of education and health working collaboratively has many perceived benefits to
both the families and the child. Many remote school staff made comments to the review
about the lack of communication between the two agencies resulting in service provision
problems. If services operating through CFCs could have a common assessment and referral
process, this would improve capacity to cater for a child’s needs and provide early diagnosis
and interventions. Services could work with families on all the key domains of the AEDI in a
manner that is clear and consistent and driven by the needs of the child. Achieving this
outcome will involve managing privacy and other legal considerations in access to health
and educational information about children.
We understand that there is at present no certainty about the availability of operational
funding to ensure the effective implementation of the CFCs. The Department and the
Australian Government should work together to ensure that this funding is secured. The
review proposes that the five CFCs be the site of trials to determine the feasibility and
effectiveness of an integrated model of service delivery involving at least health and
education, with the potential to further integrate children’s services.
Recommendations
DRAFT
6. Maintain Families as First Teachers (FaFT) in its current form pending data from
the evaluation consider additional target communities, improve implementation
where weaknesses are identified and improve the training profile of Indigenous
staff.
7. Strengthen parent engagement by mandating a school‐driven transition
program from FaFT to pre‐school and from pre‐school to school that:
a. provides ongoing support for both children and parents;
b. supports parents to understand the developmental stages of their
children; and
c. provides opportunities for parents to engage with their child’s
education.
8. Define appropriate phonemic awareness skills and teaching strategies and
implement them in pre‐schools.
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