Xavier and Murrupurtinyanuwu Community School, Nguiu, 11 May 1999 - notes
The Inquiry held two meetings with the students from Xavier and Murrupurtinyanuwu Community School (MCS). The first meeting was with the girls attending the schools and the second was with the boys. Classes are sex-segregated for cultural reasons. Aversion is practised between brothers and sisters after the ages of 12 or 13 years.
Students talked about the subjects and opportunities at their schools. They were asked questions about the positive and the negative aspects of school education on the Tiwi Islands.
MCS offers education up until Year 8, which is the end of primary school. Students then attend Xavier where they can continue with General Studies, Foundation Studies, Intensive English and the Junior Secondary Studies Curriculum currently being offered at Year 10.
Aspirations for further study
Most students hope to complete secondary schooling at Xavier up until and including Year 10. Students who want to complete secondary schooling from the Tiwi Islands must travel to Darwin. St John's at Darwin provides a facility for boarding where students can complete Years 11 and 12.
Year 10 students from the Tiwi participate in work experience in Darwin. They spend one week in Darwin doing this and most students enjoy the experience though they find the experience of relocation quite difficult. Teachers travel with the students during the week of work experience.
What we enjoy about our school
"I like school because you can do anything. You can do typing and you can use the computer. I like writing stories and playing games. I write stories in English and in Tiwi."
"We like to do music at the school and we play the guitar. Everybody in our class plays the guitar. We learn singing and dancing. We sing in both English and Tiwi."
"We learn about our four skin groups. These are plants, sun, rock and fish. Our skin groups come from our family skin groups, from our mothers and our grandmothers."
"I like dancing in my dreaming. This comes from our fathers' side. This is the fathers' dance and we learn it at school."
"After school we have to do a lot of babysitting. Sometimes we take some homework home."
"I want to come to school and I want to get a better job in my community. I want to be a Councillor. I'm not sure how long I will be at school but after school I would like to do some VET subjects or go to Batchelor."
"At school we like to learn about computers and at recess we like to play footy at the oval. We like to play games on the computer."
"School is lots of fun. There are lots of activities. It's not just sport. School is about education and education is power for me. And there are a lot of things that I need to know about the whole world. When I leave school I might go to a University in Darwin. I want to be a scientist. I will find a school in Darwin before I go to University. In future I hope to be a President of the Land Council."
Things that we would like to change about our school
"We want better buildings and we want air conditioning. The buildings are too old. We want a new basketball court and a volleyball court."
"Some parents don't give their kids money and so these kids get upset and to punish their parents the kids don't come to school."
"Sometimes kids don't come to school because of the fighting. There is too much jealousy. Some kids pick on other kids and that is why they don't come to school."
"We want a uniform at our school. We only have small sizes at our school and we don't have larger sizes to fit us."
"We would like a swimming pool. We can't swim in the sea because there are too many crocodiles and stingers. When it is hot we stand under the tap. We can go fishing."
"We would like to split up the toilets so that there are boy and girl toilets and bigger buildings."
"Some kids don't come to school because their parents spend their money playing cards and buying grog and there is no money to buy food. The kids don't come to school because they are hungry."
"Some kids think that there is too much discipline at school. Some kids are just not interested. These kids are about 16 or 17."
"What I don't like about school is vandalism. I don't like wearing home clothes because I'm embarrassed. We have a uniform at our school but mine is too small. I would like to change the rules so that at recess we could have some more time. We want it to be longer than 10 minutes."
"I want more excursions and I want to go to different places for our excursions."
"Everything about our school is OK but we need more students and especially older students. We would like correspondence students too. This would make our school better."
"There's not good food at our school. I want a new tuckshop. I want better food."
"I want to come to school every day. Some kids don't come to school because they are hungry and mum and dad don't wake up and get them breakfast."
"We need new windows because some of our windows are broken."
"There are also not many kids wearing uniforms. We want the kids to wear their uniforms to school."
"We don't want squabbling and fighting in the playground."
Education and health
Classes have small microphones that the teacher speaks into so that all children can hear the classroom proceedings. Otitis Media is common among children in the Tiwi Islands.
Breakfast is provided at school. All students have access to this program.
Last updated 2 December 2001.
