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Rural and Remote Education - NT

Rural

and Remote Education - NT

Yirrkala Homelands, 12 May

1999 - notes

The Inquiry visited

four of the homeland centres surrounding Yirrkala: GanGan, Dhuruputjpi,

Barraratjpi and Banigala

GanGan

The homeland communities

all have a traditional societal structure. One family takes the role of

leadership in the community. Leadership is different from organisation,

however, and the organisation of the community and community tasks is

carried out by another individual in the community.

There is one school

at GanGan. Twenty-six students attend the school and two teachers provide

the tuition. The children attending the school have a range of skills

and expertise and this requires that the teachers provide education at

a range of different levels.

Children with special

needs

A number of children

at the homeland communities have hearing problems. Mats have been put

on the floors of the classrooms to reduce ambient noise. Children with

more severe disabilities are not accessing education at GanGan. A child

with a disability may be kept at home and therefore not come to the attention

of the school.

Dhuruputjpi

Dhuruputjpi Community Members

There is no school

at this community. There are 5 children between the ages of 8 and 12;

4 children who fit into the post primary category, 16 to 17 and there

are 4 children under the age of 6. The older children are currently at

Banigala for their schooling. There are other older children at this community

who do not want schooling.

Banigala

Children come from

other homeland communities to attend school at Banigala. There is good

community support and good support from parents. Families travel with

their children to Banigala to enable their children to attend school.

This means some inconvenience and travel for community members as communities

are too far away from each other to be travelled between in a day. No

funding requirements apply to the families that must relocate for education.

There are regular

visiting teachers who stay 2 to 3 nights. The community welcomes the visiting

teachers and would like them to remain in the community for longer periods

of time.

The community hopes

for a "strong future" though the Land Council Chairman at Banigala spoke

of the difficulty of living in "two worlds"

The Banigala School

has two separate classes.

  1. Preschool and

    grades 1 and 2

  2. Grades 3, 4, 5,

    6

The school requires

education beyond Year 6, as the secondary age students are not receiving

enough tuition. The educational levels are set in the Homeland Area Centres

using 'Outcomes Profiling' and they do not equate to the year levels elsewhere.

The Department of Education regards the school as a primary school regardless

of the fact that there are a number of secondary age children attending

the school. There are also 19 and 20-year-old students attending the school

in order to improve their literacy in Yolngu and in English. This is known

as 'Catch-Up' education. The difficulty for these students is that there

is no other educational facility for them to attend.

Staffing levels

Staffing numbers

are based on student numbers regardless of the differing age groups and

abilities of the students. Children from the age of 4 to 17 are considered

school age for the purposes of funding. The Homeland Schools cater for

a number of students who are older than 17 and have decided to return

to school to 'catch up'.

The staffing formula

for the Homelands schools is 1 staff member per 17 students. The formula

for visiting teachers is 1 staff member per 22 students. The Homeland

schools want the NT Government to reconsider its staffing formula, and

to reduce the number of students per staff member.

In order to establish

a school there must be 12 school age children. After establishment, if

the numbers drop below 8 the school will be closed. The formula for 12

children per school is based upon attendance over a 6-month period, not

enrolment.

Boarding schools

Homeland children

have tried to attend boarding schools but this has been unsuccessful.

The travelling distances have been too great and the children have found

the separation from their communities too difficult.

Homelands school

proposal

In 199_ the homeland

communities put a proposal to the Northern Territory Government for a

school to be located in the centre of the Homelands. This would mean that

children could board at the school during the week and return home for

weekends. The distances would not be too great and the children would

still feel part of their community. The Homelands residents likened it

to the Batchelor Abstudy funded trips/travel model. No distinction would

be made between Secondary, Tertiary and Vocational Education & Training

students.

The school proposal

was rejected in 1996. The communities would now like to revisit this proposal

with the NT Government.

The schools

The schools at the

Homelands are located at GanGan and Banigala. Both schools provide primary

education.

Teaching is in both

Yolngu and English. Yolngu is used for instruction though English is also

an important focus. The Homelands schools have never been registered as

bilingual schools.

Last

updated 2 December 2001.