Indigenous-Education-Review_DRAFT

Review of Indigenous Education in the Northern Territory
Bruce Wilson
Chapter Eight: Secondary education
Secondary education opens future options to students. The quality of thought required to
succeed in secondary schooling is the basis for citizenship, social participation and control
over one’s life. It provides access to jobs, training and further education. The lack of a
complete secondary education is increasingly a barrier to life chances. At present, too many
young people in the Northern Territory do not gain these opportunities. This is not a result
of a lack of effort or dedicated attention, but arises from factors that can only be managed
by a structural shift in the delivery of secondary education.
The review has identified a number of factors contributing to the difficulty in delivering
secondary education in remote areas:
factors that secondary schools cannot control: poor attendance; cultural and social
factors affecting the attitudes to schooling of young Indigenous people;
disengagement and disruptive behaviour; weakly developed literacy skills; poor local
employment opportunities; and social dislocation and negative community attitudes
to schooling;
shortage of staff and resources needed to deliver high quality programs in remote
locations and to take advantage of distance education to broaden curriculum options;
limited curriculum options available with small student numbers; and
secondary programs that do not lead to further education and training or articulate
with jobs.
Learning Lessons
From the time of the Collins review, there has been a focus in the Northern Territory on
expanding remote provision so it better matches urban provision, particularly in the delivery
of secondary education to Indigenous young people. Recommendations made in Learning
Lessons supporting the expansion of secondary education underpinned a 15‐year focus on
expanding secondary provision in remote and very remote locations. This was part of a
concerted effort to expand opportunities for students in these locations, attracting
considerable energy and enthusiasm.
DRAFT
This effort took place, however, in the most difficult circumstances. The 2003 review of
secondary education commissioned by the Northern Territory Government reported that:
significant numbers of young Indigenous people of secondary age do not participate in
education at all, and those who do are often disengaging by Years 8 or 9 in urban
areas and even earlier in remote regions (Ramsey: 160).
The report noted the shortage of qualified secondary teachers, unreliable resourcing, limited
curriculum breadth, watered down curriculum, inadequate teaching practices, busy‐work
and low expectations (ibid.: 160‐64):
In many areas, but particularly remote, the review team doubts that what is being
delivered meets acceptable criteria for secondary education (ibid: 164).
Despite this, in 2005, workshops designed to shape Indigenous education again argued for
stronger secondary education in remote schools (SOCOM, 2005: 3). The Indigenous
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