Rural and Remote Education - NT

Rural

and Remote Education - NT

The inquiry held

informal discussions with three groups of teachers

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.

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.

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.