Yirrkala school meeting, 12 May 1999 - notes
The inquiry held informal discussions with three groups of teachers
Group 1
The first group of teachers told the Inquiry about the lack of secondary education for the students in the community. Yirrkala Community Education Centre (CEC) is not an accredited provider of secondary education and the school can only provide Foundation Studies, General Studies and Intensive English Courses. None of the Yirrkala students go to the neighbouring town, Nhulunbuy, to go to high school. The teachers feel that the courses the school provides are insufficient and inappropriate.
Group 2
The second group consisted of teachers from various schools in the area. They are all educated or currently being educated at Batchelor College. These teachers told the Inquiry about the lack of incentives to attract teachers to remote areas. The biggest problem is the lack of housing and the poor conditions of the houses provided for teachers. This is seen as one of the main reasons for high teacher turnover. The local teachers feel that they are being discriminated against because they, unlike the teachers transferred from other areas, are not provided with a house.
These teachers were also very concerned about the decision to phase out the Bilingual Education Program. They consider it to be a human right of the students to receive education in their own language. They think bilingual education is important and should be strongly supported by the NT government.
Finally these teachers expressed concern about the lack of specially trained teachers to take care of students with special needs, disabilities and learning difficulties.
Group 3
The third group of teachers told the Inquiry about cultural education. They told about their work with creating a culturally appropriate curriculum that will enable the teachers to teach the students about their own culture. The Bilingual Education Program is a very important part of this work.
Last updated 2 December 2001.
