Moree Aboriginal education workers and others, 5 March 1999 - notes
Curriculum
"That's our biggest problem - the relevancy in the curriculum for our children. You can talk to any parent having trouble getting their kids to school - at any age. There's nothing there for them, nothing that interests them. They learn more on the streets than they do in the school. It needs to be addressed to their specific learning needs."
Aboriginal Studies
"Not so long ago there was a big stink about history - Australian history - when the War Memorial in Sydney was vandalised. There was a major outcry about the lack of history being taught in our schools. If that's the case, how would they deal with the true history of this country and the colonisation of this country? How would they go putting that across in the schools?"
"An Aboriginal perspective in all schools is mandatory. But, of course, we know as Murri workers that's not happening. We're all out there trying but it's definitely not happening."
Language teaching
They teach Indonesian and Japanese but not Kamilaroi, in spite of the high numbers of Aboriginal students.
Teaching staff
"When you get teachers out to these areas, they come green. They come with virtually no awareness at all about the community that they're coming into. I think that should be the responsibility of the Department. It's the schools out here that give them a couple of days of local sensitisation. Then after three years, they're gone trained. We send out trained teachers to go and teach over at the coast. They don't stay in towns of this size with its problems. It's got a lot to do with the housing that's available and any prospects."
"They're giving teachers incentives to get out. The incentive is, you stay three years, get your points up, you've got a transfer out of there. They should give you an incentive to stay. You've spent three years there, you've built up a relationship with the community and you like the school, you've got a lot of experience, the incentive should be to stay rather than to get out. But it's sort of seen as a punishment to be here."
"The teachers can only do what the curriculum allows them to do. And there's no incentive to stay. The allowances don't compensate you for being away from your family. There have to be more incentives from the Department to make experienced and quality teachers want to come to this area. And stay. One year here we had 29 staff turnover in one year. And the following year we had 28.5 staff who were straight out of Uni at the one school out of about 50-54 in total. More than half."
It was pointed out that there has been, over the past 3 years, a substantial increase in the numbers of Murri education workers employed in the area. In the Catholic system the number has increased from 4 to 12.
Teaching and learning quality
"I come across a lot of behaviour problems in my three districts. Some of the schools I go to are central schools and some of the kids in Years 7 and 8 and at Years 2 or 3 reading level. So I think more AEAs are needed. The criterion for an extra AEA is another 120 kids in the school. That's unbelievable."
Many Aboriginal families still don't identify as such, making accurate calculations of the number of Aboriginal students impossible. "Families still aren't confident enough to put their hands up."
"We have many, many children slipping through the net from primary into high school with the reading level of an 8-year-old."
"There are some predominantly Aboriginal schools where not one Aboriginal kid has passed the Basic Skills Test. It's culturally biased. I suggest teachers be put on some sort of contract based on productivity: that their kids go out of the school with literacy level at high school standards or HSC standards. At the moment none of the kids at the schools I work with - they can barely read and write and they're in high school. There's got to be something put in place to offset this balance. Our kids aren't being taught. It's up to the schools to develop a method that works for our kids."
Proposed teaching strategies for Indigenous students
"Mix the practical with the theory." "Show them the practical application. Black kids learn better outside the 4 walls of the classroom than inside."
Introducing a bridging program - such as was once in place in Moree from kindergarten into primary school - was also suggested.
Local knowledge and social issues within their own community was said to be most relevant because, especially in isolated areas such as Boggabilla and Goodooga, 95% of the children will not leave the area. "2-Unit Maths and Japanese are going to be of no value or use to that community in the long run. Why sit there wasting time? If they made it relevant to the local community it's going to benefit the community: offer apprenticeship courses through a joint Schools-TAFE program; hands-on things that our kids are really good at."
At Toomelah - with 100% Aboriginal enrolment - the Aboriginal Education Resource Teacher made big books with Aboriginal English - the way the kids speak - for the Reading Recovery Program. Followed through from Kindergarten to Year 6.
"For our kids, smaller classes, definitely more relativity in the curriculum to what they need, far more hands-on stuff - our kids learn better by doing than copying from the board or from books that have no relevance to many of our kids at all. And one-to-one or one-to-two tutoring or teaching is critical. It works. But whoever controls that money says, 'No we can't have it.' We say that same old things over and over again."
The Catholic school Homework Centre was said to work well. However, a much lower proportion of Catholic school students in the area are Aboriginal.
Incentive programs and rewards which have been introduced at Bourke Primary School and also at Lightening Ridge were commended. At Bourke an old train with 2 carriages is located in the school grounds, one with the computers in it and the other with the reading resources. "That's one of the incentives for the kids to do well in the class-room. If they do well in the class-room, they're allowed time on the computer." At Lightening Ridge some years ago classes were streamed and rotated in 40 minute sessions as in high schools, alternating academic and other subjects.
Peer mentoring (high-achieving students assisting others) and role modelling (AEAs and other Aboriginal people coming into the school) are very important. The quality of the leadership within the school was also identified as critical to the education success of Indigenous students.
The Reading Recovery program was commended (flexible as at Toomelah mentioned above). But only one teacher in the school is trained in it - at a cost of $17,000-$20,000 each out of the school's budget - and after three years that teacher takes his/her new knowledge elsewhere.
Discipline
"My major concern is with kids getting suspended - they get sent to these time-out centres. I think the Department should look at having a special class-room in the school, for in-school suspension. But they haven't got enough staff to monitor them."
"Time-out centres are not working. They get suspended and agree to go to the time-out centre. But later you see 50 or 60 kids in the street riding bikes. They don't care. They should be kept in class - within the school grounds - and within the responsibility of the Education Department."
Financial support
Some parents cannot access Abstudy because of the means test, even though they are just above the poverty line. Participants feared the effects on adult education which, to date, has produced Aboriginal Education Assistants and teachers.
Keeping Indigenous students in the education system is an ongoing challenge. Scholarships and bursaries were suggested.
Last updated 2 December 2001.
