Indigenous-Education-Review_DRAFT

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Review of Indigenous Education in the Northern Territory Bruce Wilson These variations should not lead to the continuation of inadequate secondary programs delivered in communities that do not meet the criteria for maintenance of secondary education delivery. Additional uses for facilities Residential facilities could have a range of additional uses. It is intended that they would establish a relationship with bush schools located within a reasonable travelling distance from the facility. In addition to the secondary program, the schools could take groups of teachers, assistant teachers, students and a few community members on a residential basis for a week or two at a time, offering programs of professional learning. They could, for example, host groups for training in delivering the programs in literacy (including phonemic awareness and phonics) referred to in the previous chapter. This would help improve the quality of learning in bush primary schools, strengthen teacher and assistant teacher skills and also engage primary children and community members with the boarding school the children might attend for the secondary years. The facilities could provide support for professional learning, including for assistant teachers engaged in training programs and potentially for Indigenous teaching trainees. ATs and trainees could visit the centres with their schools and also on other occasions with those undertaking similar training from different schools. Distance education Distance education is a much broader subject than the terms of reference for this review encompass. It is, however, relevant to the future delivery of education to Indigenous students. The set of proposals outlined in this chapter will raise issues about the role and provision of distance education in the Northern Territory. The remote secondary provision model will involve the use of online and NTOEC delivery. It should also involve the use of distance education in the middle years to extend curriculum options. DRAFT Accordingly, the review has examined the delivery of distance education in the Northern Territory. Further work will be needed to determine the best model for supporting those secondary students who remain in bush locations. This work should include further analysis of the best model for managing and delivering distance education. The Northern Territory Department of Education operates three local distance education providers: the Northern Territory Open Education Centre (NTOEC) is a Senior Secondary School providing Northern Territory Board of Studies approved subjects at Years 10, 11 and a limited VET program; Katherine School of the Air (KSA) caters for isolated primary school and middle years students in the top half of the Northern Territory as well as residents temporarily traveling or based elsewhere; and Alice Springs School of the Air (ASSOA) caters for primary school and middle years students in the southern half of the Northern Territory. The three Northern Territory distance education schools are clear about the critical conditions for success, including the presence of a literate (and preferably trained) adult on 81
Review of Indigenous Education in the Northern Territory Bruce Wilson site with the child, strong support for maintaining participation in the program, good relationships between the distance provider and the local school or family, effective communication, creative use of technology and high quality programs and courses. KSA and ASSOA operate almost completely independently. They have independent management arrangements. They develop their own courses, and in recent years have conducted parallel work to develop courses to deliver the Australian Curriculum. Both schools have in recent years expanded their use of digital technologies to deliver online lessons and to improve communication with students and host schools. Both are moving into the delivery of middle years programs and are beginning to service children in schools, and to establish more wide‐ranging relationships with those schools (in addition to the traditional market of mostly non‐Indigenous children on cattle stations or living where formal schooling is not easily available). To the outside observer, however, distance education seems a service that should not be limited by geography. If a distance education service were being established today, it is unlikely that three separate schools would be considered a rational solution. Instead, an approach would be adopted to take advantage of economies of scale (e.g. in accommodation, management and administrative support), reduce overlap and duplication (e.g.in course development and delivery), benefit from a single investment in technology and a single program for technological innovation and group students engaged in unpopular subject areas across the territory to maximize access. The Department of Education should consider the effectiveness and efficiency of the current arrangements in the light of the changes, especially to secondary education, recommended in this review. If fully implemented, these changes will require the upgrading and strengthening of all aspects of distance learning services. This suggests that it might also be appropriate to review the broader issue of the structure and management of distance education. Recommendations DRAFT 15. Offer secondary education for bush students in towns, with students accommodated in residential facilities, and through remote secondary provision in a small number of bush schools that can satisfy secondary enrolment and attendance criteria: a. conduct trials of both remote secondary provision and residential arrangements to determine adaptations needed for more widespread delivery; b. offer programs to Year 6 in bush primary schools, and offer one or more years of middle schooling only by negotiation with regional managers if schools satisfy agreed criteria; and c. examine the three‐school distance education arrangement and current practice to determine how well they are suited to the changed secondary schooling arrangements proposed in this report. 82
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