School meeting in Doomadgee, 6 October 1999 - notes
The meeting was attended by the school principal, teachers and trainee teachers. From HREOC: Chris Sidoti, Human Rights Commissioner; Lady Pearl Logan, Queensland Co-Commissioner; and two Commission staff.
School attendance
"School attendance is a big issue in Doomadgee. About 40-50% of students are regular non-attenders."
"There are a variety of reasons for non-attendance. Some children get teased at school. Some are embarrassed because of their bad clothes. Some are from dysfunctional families with lots of alcohol and gambling and as a result are often awake until after midnight. Some don't come to school because they don't have enough money for the tuckshop."
"Some kids come to school hungry and affected by scabies and poor hygiene. Many come from families with lots of conflict. All of these things have an adverse effect on attendance."
"Some children have substandard clothing. This can make them feel too ashamed to come to school."
"Alcohol has a big affect on attendance. Some parents are too drunk or hung over to get their kids off to school in the morning."
"The school operates a bus system as part of its strategy to reduce non-attendance. However, this doesn't really address the chronic non-attenders. It has its greatest impact on those who are on the borderline in their decision about whether to attend school."
Substance abuse
Much concern was expressed about the abuse of alcohol in the community and its impact on children's education opportunities. "Alcohol has devastated a lot of lives in this community. Drunkenness in the home is one of the reasons why some parents are not encouraging their children to attend school."
"Alcohol is not the only form of substance abuse. A lot of glue sniffing, petrol sniffing and aerosol sniffing goes on in Doomadgee."
Suicide and mental health
"Suicide is a serious problem among young people in Doomadgee. There have been cases of suicide by kids as young as ten. There have also been many cases of attempted suicide."
"Some of the children are emulating the older ones in their suicidal behaviour."
"We have a counsellor here for a week and a half each term plus at request if it is very urgent. But we really need a permanent counsellor. We need access to both Indigenous and non-Indigenous counsellors."
"There needs to be better co-ordination of mental health and other health services across the community. The people at the health clinic should also be servicing the school and working in other community settings. This is currently not happening."
Hearing problems
"Approximately 80% of kids have hearing problems. In the primary school we have speakers in the classrooms. We also give the kids education about how to deal with hearing problems. Audiologists visit once a year to do hearing checks but there is no follow-up."
School-parent-community relations
"Teachers need to do a lot more talking with parents. They need to go into their homes and get to know them better. They need to work harder at 'selling' education to the parents."
"The school should run workshops for parents and families. We need to build up their confidence in the school and the education system."
"We need to focus on the parents because many of them had bad experiences at school and as a result of that don't encourage their children to attend."
"Quite a few young people have babies and they hand them over to the parents and grandparents to look after. It is predominantly the older people in the community who are the caregivers of young children. You often find an older person looking after 8 or 10 kids. The older people do their best but sometimes they aren't fit enough to look after the kids properly. When the older people die, it is very distressing for the younger ones in their care and can be very destabilising for their lives."
Curriculum
"We need to look at changing the mainstream curriculum because it doesn't 'cut it' with the Indigenous kids here."
Sharing of resources
"We try to work with schools in other communities such as Normanton and Burketown in professional development and sharing of resources."
Technology
"The school has internet connection through the Connect Ed program. The cost is cheap - only $60 per month. However, access is not reliable. You can never come into school in the morning assuming that it will be working."
"Whenever the system goes down it takes a long time to fix it. Recently the system went down when lightning struck. We didn't have access for 4 weeks because that's how long it took someone to come out and fix it."
Sport and community facilities
"There are some sports but it is very male-oriented. Mostly football. There are very few sporting activities for girls."
"The school arranges excursions and sporting camps for the kids. They have taken the kids on trips to Mt Isa, Cairns, Kununurra (WA), NT and other places."
"Some money has been spent on community facilities for Doomadgee but it has not been spent well. The Community Recreation Centre cost over $1 million but it has a stage and sloping floor. This means it can only be used as a theatre and not for sport, recreation or community meetings."
Boredom
"Boredom is a big factor for both kids and adults. There are very few activities in the town for them. They have nothing to do so they play up and get into trouble."
"There's nothing for young people to do here. There's no motivation to do anything because we have no proper facilities and hardly any organised activities."
"This is a welfare town. People here get a lot of welfare, especially if they have lots of kids. Yet they have nothing to spend it on except VB."
Employment opportunities
"There are hardly any employment opportunities for young people in Doomadgee. There are no real jobs in the town. There is a crying need for mechanics, bakers and other occupations in this community. We need people who can build bridges so that we are not stranded during the wet season."
"Funding should be provided to establish real and sustainable jobs for young people."
"The CDEP scheme employs about 350 people in this area. A lot of them work on the 4 outstations and only a small number in the town."
"There needs to be better training and career pathways in the community. Many of the young people want to stay in the community but they can't because there are no job opportunities here."
"Money is not the answer to the problems in this town. We do need more funding but it is more a question of how the money is spent and how it is managed."
Teacher conditions
"It's hard for teachers and other people from outside the community to come and work in a place like Doomadgee. You need to work hard to gain the trust of the local people. This doesn't apply only to white people. It's also hard for Indigenous people because there are cultural, tribal and religious differences among Indigenous people."
"We have 10 Indigenous staff here. Some local people are employed as teachers' aides through the RATEP Scheme (Remote Area Teacher Education Program). We need to encourage more local people into the RATEP scheme. It can be hard for them because they come from the community and may have an involvement with community problems through their extended family. Or they may have a connection with one of the kids in their class."
"Staff turnover is very high. This year alone there have been 5 changes."
"Housing conditions for teachers in Doomadgee are very bad. The principal is the only one provided with his own house. Other teachers have to share. This can be very difficult, especially if they don't get along with each other. Teachers have very little privacy and personal space."
"The teachers' houses are very badly maintained. A lot of them need painting."
"Some houses have structural problems and are not safe to live in. Any renovations to the houses are usually only cosmetic changes that will keep it going for a few more years."
"We have to learn how to do nearly all of our own home repairs and maintenance because there is no-one else to do it for us."
"We have termites in our house. The house is always getting sprayed but we have great concerns about the adverse effect of all the chemicals being used."
"The temperature gets up to 40-45 degrees but we don't have proper insulation in the ceilings. This makes living at home almost unbearable at times."
"Mostly single people are sent to Doomadgee. If they sent couples there would be a housing shortage. This means that the community tends to get younger and less experienced teachers."
"Teacher housing in Doomadgee is very full. Frequent staff changes mean that existing staff are often forced to move to accommodate new staff in terms of gender and couples etc. This causes great inconvenience to staff. I recently had to move 3 times in 2 months."
"Some teachers have had to leave the community because they can't cope with the housing situation."
Other teacher concerns
"The cost of flights out of Doomadgee is astronomical. It costs over $1,000 for a return flight to Brisbane and $800 to Cairns."
"There are not many flights out of Doomadgee. They only go out on Monday and Friday. This means that you often have to waste precious holiday time waiting around for the next flight out."
"Even if you have a four wheel drive you can only drive out of Doomadgee at certain times of the year because of floods."
"Sometimes you feel trapped and you just want to get out of the community for a while but you can't."
"The cost and difficulty of travel makes it very hard for teachers to arrange things like going to weddings and funerals or visiting a specialist."
"Access to counsellors is also an issue for teachers who work under very stressful circumstances. Sometimes you have a problem and you need to speak to an independent person rather than one of your colleagues or a community member."
Positive experiences
"Doomadgee is not all doom and gloom."
"Some of the young people are making good progress at school, despite all of the problems and obstacles they face."
Last updated 2 December 2001.
