Indigenous-Education-Review_DRAFT
Indigenous-Education-Review_DRAFT
Indigenous-Education-Review_DRAFT
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<strong>Review</strong> of <strong>Indigenous</strong> <strong>Education</strong> in the Northern Territory<br />
Bruce Wilson<br />
site with the child, strong support for maintaining participation in the program, good<br />
relationships between the distance provider and the local school or family, effective<br />
communication, creative use of technology and high quality programs and courses.<br />
KSA and ASSOA operate almost completely independently. They have independent<br />
management arrangements. They develop their own courses, and in recent years have<br />
conducted parallel work to develop courses to deliver the Australian Curriculum. Both<br />
schools have in recent years expanded their use of digital technologies to deliver online<br />
lessons and to improve communication with students and host schools. Both are moving<br />
into the delivery of middle years programs and are beginning to service children in schools,<br />
and to establish more wide‐ranging relationships with those schools (in addition to the<br />
traditional market of mostly non‐<strong>Indigenous</strong> children on cattle stations or living where<br />
formal schooling is not easily available).<br />
To the outside observer, however, distance education seems a service that should not be<br />
limited by geography. If a distance education service were being established today, it is<br />
unlikely that three separate schools would be considered a rational solution. Instead, an<br />
approach would be adopted to take advantage of economies of scale (e.g. in<br />
accommodation, management and administrative support), reduce overlap and duplication<br />
(e.g.in course development and delivery), benefit from a single investment in technology<br />
and a single program for technological innovation and group students engaged in unpopular<br />
subject areas across the territory to maximize access.<br />
The Department of <strong>Education</strong> should consider the effectiveness and efficiency of the current<br />
arrangements in the light of the changes, especially to secondary education, recommended<br />
in this review. If fully implemented, these changes will require the upgrading and<br />
strengthening of all aspects of distance learning services. This suggests that it might also be<br />
appropriate to review the broader issue of the structure and management of distance<br />
education.<br />
Recommendations<br />
<strong>DRAFT</strong><br />
15. Offer secondary education for bush students in towns, with students accommodated<br />
in residential facilities, and through remote secondary provision in a small number of<br />
bush schools that can satisfy secondary enrolment and attendance criteria:<br />
a. conduct trials of both remote secondary provision and residential<br />
arrangements to determine adaptations needed for more widespread<br />
delivery;<br />
b. offer programs to Year 6 in bush primary schools, and offer one or more years<br />
of middle schooling only by negotiation with regional managers if schools<br />
satisfy agreed criteria; and<br />
c. examine the three‐school distance education arrangement and current<br />
practice to determine how well they are suited to the changed secondary<br />
schooling arrangements proposed in this report.<br />
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