Rural and Remote Education - NT

Rural and Remote Education - NT

Nguiu community meeting, 11 May 1999 - notes

Provision of education

"The education in Tiwi is based on a Western system, on Western cultures. The curriculum as it stands now has a primary system which goes up to grade 7 and then it has a [Education Department] placement test that is published and it leads students (Aboriginal Students) into one of three courses, bridging courses: Intensive English studies, Foundation studies or General studies. That is where the education stops and if students want to continue past General Studies then they would have to go into town [ie Darwin]."

"Schools at the moment have been trying to increase the outcomes and we've introduced the Junior Secondary School Curriculum (JSSC). We are also interested in VET [Vocational Education and Training] and in work placements in the community. This of course is much more complex here in Nguiu that in major cities. The Northern Territory JSSC is very limited. In other States the curriculum is more flexible. There is currently a curriculum review which will then allow us to tailor our courses to meet the needs of the children."

"If there is one thing that I can say in relation to human rights, that in places like this there is not the right to secondary education. We are trialling it and we are tied to a curriculum laid down by the NT Government. The JSSC is an impediment to secondary education in rural and remote communities. We are working toward improving the situation generally."

Costs of education

"There are high costs for providing curriculum options and providing professional development support for the staff. The rural schools in the Northern Territory have a high staff turnover and involved in that high staff turnover is the fact that non-Indigenous staff are employed on two year contracts and tend to come from down South with a package. One of our concerns I think is that people come up for holidays."

"Other costs involve the high cost of internet access and the high costs of information technology, obviously any lines to Darwin to the internet providers are STD which means that the costs are quite high."

"Another concern arises when students in remote communities have learning difficulties or special needs. Teachers need professional development on teaching strategies that are appropriate to the culture of the community. Assessment tasks and strategies need to be assessed to meet the needs of our students and teachers need to be supported in that. And again, due to the high staff turn over the professional development cycle is short term. Long term goals are very difficult. One of the difficulties we are facing at the moment is that we have a new principal, a new deputy and a new receptionist. Administration staff have changed over since last year. Seven out of our 8 teachers did not teach at Xavier last year. We have nearly had a 100% turnover in staff in one year other than our teacher aids; our Tiwi staff."

Localisation

"I think it would be fair to say for both schools that they are committed to localisation of the schools. The Tiwi staff that are employed at MCS and Xavier CEC have proven to be very good teachers. They have good knowledge of the local community culture and they are able to impart that knowledge to their students. One of the concerns that we would have at Xavier is that currently Batchelor College only offers Primary Teacher Training. Xavier Community Education Centre is fortunate in that it is trialling junior secondary studies curriculum and in fact it is the only remote school in the Northern Territory to be doing so. I think that is a point of pride for the community and for the teachers who have worked here over the last years."

"At MCS we have more localisation (than at Xavier). We have five trained (Tiwi) teachers with classes. They are teaching classes of 15, 17 and 24 students. This year with the number of staff at the school, there are more Tiwi trained staff than non Tiwi staff. There are 4 non Tiwi staff at the school and about 7 of us; 7 Tiwi staff."

"One of the concerns about our future children, and we've been concerned about this for the past 20 years, is that we're trying to develop our communities' future, both Bathurst and Melville Island. The jobs that were trying to set up for our community are raising some problems. The biggest problem that we are having is that we don't seem to have any key players to get involved in this business. It's important that we try to get it running to try and get some benefit out of outside money into our communities. Because, as you all know, it's a broader thing when you look at it overall that with a lack of education and a lack of development in the community, funding can be a problem. It's not just Tiwi people who understand this, it's a problem all over the country."

"Having business set up in our community and encouraging employment is the first thing. The problem with that is though that we don't have many young people with the level of education to try and take control and get involved in taking over the interests in the outside business; taking control of the jobs. Jobs with nursing all of the jobs that the Western world brought in from the outside. It seems to me that all of us here don't have that level for our children to get up there to that level. For us, I think we are about two maybe one hundred years behind. See you're ahead and we are about 100 years behind and we have to catch up. There are no facilities yet for our children to be able to do these sort of things. With a lot of commitment and not just from the children, but from the parents, and that's a big responsibility, and especially the leaders like ourselves. We need to act on this. We've talked about it in a lot of meetings and there's a lot of concern."

"The only place where it's going to come from is the school where the children go. That's where the facilities and the resources should be given. We need to use that and provide that for the kids so that they can benefit from it when they get out of school. At least they will come out of school with a ticket if nothing else."

"Jimmy has mentioned before that we're heading towards the right path, towards running things for ourselves, the Tiwi people. We're heading towards 2010 maybe sooner, to take over the main positions that the non Tiwis have on this island. We are heading towards this position and as you know education is a major key, it plays a major role towards that. So the education has to be one that our children are happy with and we want our children to succeed and to achieve outcomes in that process."

"In order to achieve self-determination, elders must have control of the curriculum. There are things that are happening now, hands on curriculum. I know the year ten students are going out to do work experience. This is good. There needs to be more input of technical skills. The elders need to have a closer input into the curriculum and we need to have more say into what our kids are learning."

"But in education, problems still abound. We had 13 resignations in one year. The Tiwi people did not employ the staff of the school and they generally feel outside of the education process."

"It is only when the decision making is owned and instigated by the Tiwi people that success is the outcome. They have to devise the policies in the future."

Bilingual education

"At MCS the kids are receiving bilingual education. This year it has been 10 years where the kids are reading and writing in their first language. This year they have improved in their reading and writing and in their general literacy. These students have now moved to Xavier Secondary College where they are trialling the Junior Secondary Studies."

"The good thing about having a bilingual program in our school is support to our Tiwi kids and as they grow up they learn more English and also reading and writing and science and other things. We are fortunate to have about 8 trained, fourth year trained, Tiwi staff at MCS including myself as a principal. We also have a couple of staff who are doing their third year teacher training course at Batchelor and two who are completing their stage one teacher education course."

"I feel it's not too far from when the assimilation policy was changed and then bilingual education only happened in 1974. There is at the back of my mind and in the minds of the educators the desire to improve people's English skills and their vernacular."

"Obviously they [the Northern Territory Government] have a policy and a reason for doing what they are doing to bilingual education. I really wonder whether the bilingual education was set up for that reason. [To address assimilation] I understand that the linguists, the anthropologists put effort into producing this bilingual education before they put it out into communities. They talked with government and Indigenous people, but it was pretty obvious what was going to happen."

"I'm very disappointed. And it's just common sense to have our own people teaching our children in their own language. You see the educators standing up there in front of the children, speaking their own language and it helps the children with their education. But you know the hearing problem is a big problem here affecting the education of the children."

Education and health

"Some of the things that are not good for our kids is that 80% of our kids have hearing problems. They have problems with their attendance."

"The support that they [children with hearing impairment] get in the school is that in every classroom there's an amplification system where the teacher uses the mike. When the teacher speaks through the mike the kids can hear her. Another support that we have is two male Tiwis and one female where they do an ear program every morning which involves nose blowing and checking their ears. I think with the loss of hearing our kids have difficulty in learning and listening to the sounds in their first language using syllables and also the English vowels. They have problems listening and when they do Multi Assessment Program I think some of our kids have done well with the test, but some of our kids because of their hearing have not done well in the test."

"In 1995 this community really staggered. There were 38 deaths and 35 births in a population of just under 2,000 people. It was that year that the Tiwi people cashed up all of their dollars and formed the Tiwi Health Board."

"The dramatic success of that organisation is testimony to the ownership of the organisation; the Tiwi people employ the doctors and the nurses. These professional staff are accountable to the Tiwi. The other organisation is the Land Council. The land is clearly theirs and they organise it."

Outside influences on the Nguiu community

"I think that the Catholic Church has had a role to play over history. I think the Church played Mummy and Daddy and took responsibility away from the parents. When this happens to Aboriginal people it means that the children focus less on their parents and are more responsive to outside things. They then rely too much on outside experiences."

"We need to learn to depend on ourselves. It's got to work inside the community. The outside word can give us assistance because that is where the tools are."

"Jimmy has just described the fundamental dilemma. The people are alienated by the process of outside influences imposing their ways on this fragile society. The school is just like the Mission, it has every good will and yet it does not allow the people to own the process. The Government has continued this process."

"We get countless letters from people who want to do things with or to the Tiwi people. Nobody invites them to own the process. And therefore there is the reliance on the outside community. The things that work here are the things that the Tiwi really feel that they own. The football is a dramatic example of that. There is perhaps no other football club that functions as well as the Tiwi football League. It is exciting and they own it."

Last updated 2 December 2001.