Indigenous-Education-Review_DRAFT

Review of Indigenous Education in the Northern Territory
Bruce Wilson
Indigenous students. The report also recommends appropriate provision for significant
numbers of students with hearing impediments and other physical disabilities (Collins, 1999:
12 and 116).
The KPMG review highlighted disproportionate resources and personnel being devoted to
urban schools and a lack of special education teachers in the remotes where the need was
highest:
A concerted effort at both the school and systemic levels will be required to redress
the inequities that some students may encounter in remote communities. (KPMG,
2000: 2).
One outcome of this review was the placement of special education teachers and additional
resources in remote schools.
Wellbeing and behaviour management
There is a growing body of evidence to support the notion that children who have well
developed social and emotional skills are more able to participate fully in the classroom and
maximise their capacity to learn. Similarly, educators understand that learning cannot
happen unless there are effective classroom management strategies in place that create an
environment in which students can devote their energies to learning.
Respondents to the review recognised the disproportionately high level of health and
mental health issues in the Aboriginal population. This is consistent with the Western
Australian Aboriginal Child Health Survey research into Indigenous education, health and
wellbeing which states that:
Nearly one in four Aboriginal children (24 per cent) are at high risk of clinically
significant emotional or behavioural difficulties. These difficulties are associated
with a substantial educational burden
(Zubrick et. al. 2006: 503).
DRAFT
The 2012 AEDI data support this view. In the AEDI domains of Social Competence and
Emotional Maturity, respectively 27.1% and 28.7% of Indigenous children in very remote
locations in the Northern Territory are developmentally vulnerable. From the first days of
their schooling lives, more than three times as many Indigenous children as non‐Indigenous
children are vulnerable in these areas.
Many respondents to the review held that these issues are largely left undiagnosed and
untreated (and therefore not supported by the relevant specialist services). Many staff
expressed the view that the majority of their students would be classified as requiring
specialist support if they were assessed appropriately and that they rarely received the
support that they needed from the specialists in the Department. Schools with their own
counsellors, hearing specialists or other support staff were better placed, but those
specialists seemed overwhelmed with high caseloads: managing a proactive, preventative
model was out of the question.
Despite this, many schools have adopted programs designed to address these issues directly.
As with many other areas, the review found that there were widely varying approaches to
behaviour management. Some schools, but far from all, had a clear whole school approach
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