UNESCO reported with approval that in 1992 the Faculty of Education in Sydney conducted a project to compile a selection of reference documents for teacher training students to teach
829
<http://education.qld.gov.au/strategic/eppr/ at 13 July 2012. ; See also NSW:
<http://www.schools.nsw.edu.au> at 13 July 2012; Vic: <http://www.education.vic.gov.au> at 13 July 2012; SA: <http://www.decs.sa.gov.au> at 13 July 2012; WA: <http://www.det.wa.edu.au> at 13 July 2012; Tas: <http://www2.education.tas.gov.au> at 13 July 2012; ACT: <http://www.det.act.gov.au/> at 13 July 2012; NT: <http://www.det.nt.gov.au/> at 13 July 2012.
830
CESCR (2009) [445].
831
Renee Williamson and Sue Craine, ‘Review of special education services in ACT public schools: Comment on the Discussion paper’ Vision Australia (2009)
<http://www.visionaustralia.org/info.sapx?page=2122> [3.2] at 13 July 2012. 832 Senate Committee (2002-2004) [3.40]. 833 CESCR (2009) [447]. 834 Senate Committee (2002-2004) [3.12]. 835
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history, culture and Australian Indigenous peoples issues in the school curriculum.836 The CESCR in 2000 commended Australia for having allocated $2.3 billion for Indigenous programs.837 However, despite this and the gains that have been made in the past few decades, Indigenous children are yet to achieve equal access to a full education. Many drop out of school at or before Year 10 and comparatively few remain to complete Years 11 and 12. Approximately half of eligible 4-year-old Indigenous children do not enrol in preschool and Indigenous students’ results have been found to be roughly 20 percent below the national average in literacy and numeracy at Years 3, 5 and 7.838 In 2004, 39.5 percent of Indigenous students progressed to Year 12 compared with 76.8 percent of other students.839 As part of its focus on Indigenous education the Australian Government in 2004 pledged $2.1 billion for programs to improve the educational outcomes for indigenous students.840 The States and Territories also introduced programs to support Indigenous students in the past decade.841 The Australian Government pledged funding of $291.2 million for six years to improve remote service delivery including reforms to early childhood services for Indigenous children.842
While some Indigenous specific programs have been highly successful,843 so far only a small proportion of the total population of Indigenous students has been able to access them. What
836
Jean Hénaire, ‘The Right to Education: Setting the Context’ (2000) World Association for the School as an Instrument of Peace, 8 <http://www.eip-cifedhop.org> at 6 July 2012.
837
United Nations Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, Concluding Observations, Australia 08/09/2000, E/C.12/1/Add.50 (2000). 9
<http://www.ag.gov.au/Documents/a00000Common%20Core%20Document%20Annex%203.pdf> at 3 November 2012.
838
MCEETYA, Australian Directions in Indigenous Education 2005–2008 (2006) 13.
839
Ibid 14.
840
Common core document (2006) [576-578]: Programs included: Whole of School Intervention; Indigenous Tutorial Assistance Scheme; Indigenous Support Program; National Indigenous English Literacy and Numeracy Strategy; Indigenous Youth Mobility Program; Indigenous Youth Leadership Program .
841
Initiatives included: NSW Department of Education and training review of Aboriginal education in NSW (2003-2004); Department of Education and Training (Vic) Yalca: A Partnership in Education and Training for the New Millennium (2001); Yurrekaityarindi - an Aboriginal decision making model (SA); Follow the Dream –improving secondary retention (WA); Indigenous Education Strategic Plan (2000-2004) (NT); Education and Training Reform Framework and Bound For Success – Cape York and Torres Strait Education Strategies (Qld); Action Plan 2002-2004: Services to Indigenous Peoples (ACT Department of Education and Training) Ibid, 579.
842
Australian Government, ‘Closing the Gap on Indigenous Disadvantage: The Challenge for Australia’ (February 2009), 21 in FREDA 2009 §O.4.
843
See Krista Mogensen, ‘Deadly and smart’ (2009) 84 Australian Educator 24 concerning the East Kalgoorlie Primary School where attendance ‘skyrocketed’ and academic results improved after adopting the ‘Strong and Smart’ leadership initiated by Dr Chris Sarra at Cherbourg Queensland in 2006.
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is required is a system wide change in approach in addressing the issues in Indigenous communities.844 SEAM (the School Enrolment and Attendance Measure) continues to link welfare payments to parents with the attendance of their children at state schools in an effort to improve school attendance in areas of the Northern Territory and Queensland.845 It
requires parents to ensure their children are enrolled in school and attend regularly. Failure to do so results in the withdrawal of income support. The measure does not require compulsory reporting by the schools but is presented as an optional strategy for schools to use in
improving school attendance.846 Although widely criticised, the measure can be seen as an attempt to take ‘steps to include the most marginalised’ pursuant to the components of ‘accessibility’. However whether they are the recommended ‘positive steps’ is debatable.847
Not only must schools be able to be accessed by marginalised children, they must be educationally and economically accessible. If the children are not engaged by the environment and content of the schooling they will not attend, even if their parents are forced to deliver them to the school. If the home subsists on income support, then materials to assist learning will be limited. Compelling attendance per se without addressing the students’ needs does not pass the test of accessibility.
It has been observed that if the plight of Indigenous students has been described as ‘at risk’ it must be recognised that they are at risk of failing not just because of circumstances of birth or environment but because the school has not sufficiently engaged them.848 Teachers need
844
In June 2007 the Australian Government responded to allegations of widespread child sexual abuse in Aboriginal communities in the Little Children Are Sacred (Northern Territory Board of Inquiry into the Protection of Aboriginal Children from Sexual Abuse) Report. The intervention included the quarantining of welfare payments to link income support and family assistance payments to school attendance, increased alcohol restrictions, compulsory health checks for children, and the acquisition of townships by the government through five-year leases: See Sarah Maddison, ‘Indigenous autonomy matters: what’s wrong with the Australian government’s ‘intervention’ in Aboriginal communities’ (2008) 14(1) Australian Journal of Human Rights 41.
845
John McCollow, ‘Welfare – school attendance link spreads to Logan’ (2009) 32(8) Queensland Teachers’ Journal, 15; See SEAM <http://www.deewr.gov.au/schooling/programs/pages/seam.aspx> at 7 November 2012.
846
Ibid.
847
The Northern Territory Intervention prompted an estimate that a further 660 teachers would be needed in the Northern Territory if school attendance reached 100 per cent. See Michaela Kronemann, Education is the Key: An Education Future for Indigenous Communities in the Northern Territory (2007) 33<http://www.aeufederal.org.au/Publications/Educationisthekey.pdf>at 13 January 2013; The Commonwealth Family Responsibilities Commission legislation suspended the Anti-Discrimination Act 1991 (Qld) and the Racial Discrimination Act 1975 (Cth) in the reserve communities of Hopevale, Mossman Gorge, Cohen and Aurukun. See Anti-Discrimination Commission (Qld) Submission, 15 June 2009.
848
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to accept Aboriginal English as the first language of many Indigenous students.849 Strong leadership at the school level is important in fostering a culture of learning that includes Indigenous students and enables their engagement and participation.850
The MCEETYA recommendations of 2006 committed the State and Territory Ministers to provide pre-service and in-service professional training in Indigenous culture, and
pedagogical strategies to school leaders and teachers. They also committed to making professional learning in Indigenous culture and issues a prerequisite for appointment as principal.851 Despite these goals disparities remain between outcomes for Indigenous and non-indigenous students. For example, it was reported in 2008 that Indigenous teenagers as old as 16 were still attending primary school in homeland communities in northeast Arnhem Land because there were no secondary schooling facilities. One of the communities
petitioned the Northern Territory Government to allow its school to become an independent Christian school in order to provide a permanent teacher.852 As in the case of access for disabled children, the recent measures introduced to improve access to education for Indigenous children have yet to be tested. Currently the right to an adequately accessible education for these children has not been achieved.