A genuine revolution

Indigenous education

The fact that Australia’s Aboriginal peoples remain at the bottom level of every economic, health and social indicator is unacceptable and should be a source of national shame. Correcting this must be a national priority and Australians need to commit to support courageous policy to tackle together the issues that continue to divide this country.

The report by Professor Tony Vinson Dropping Off the Edge released in February 2007 found: “that despite our nation's recent strong economic growth, some communities remain caught in a spiral of low school attainment, high unemployment, poor health, high imprisonment rates and child abuse”.

Sadly, the economic and social policies of the last decade have widened the gap between rich and poor in this country and have further exacerbated problems in many communities.

The IEUA strongly supports the notion that “education can help transform social and economic opportunities”. Accordingly the IEUA believes that increased resources and support are a long overdue national priority in indigenous education.

When the former US Surgeon General, Dr David Satcher, after looking around Central Australia, was recently asked: “What is the solution to this misery?” He didn’t say “emergency seizure of the remote communities”. He said “education, education, education”.

Special needs students

The current funding mechanisms are not fine enough measures to accurately account for the number of students in a school with disabilities or other special needs, including behaviour management issues, or to take account of the particular educational needs of these students and their related costs.

There is an urgent need to develop a nationally consistent set of definitions as to what constitutes disability for the purposes of funding.

To ensure that schools have the capacity to meet the educational needs of all students, the “revolution” needs to develop and deliver a framework of teaching and learning resource standards for high quality teaching and learning conditions for students with disabilities and other special needs with regard to:

• the appropriate levels of specialist teaching and support staff;
• class sizes which allow optimum teaching and learning for integrated classes;
• time release for curriculum and program modification and planning, and liaising with parents and external agencies; and
• access to appropriate and relevant professional development for teachers and support staff.

School resourcing

It has been suggested previously by some commentators that the funding of education in Australia is “around the wrong way”. Namely that the amount of per capita funding provided to education increases from pre-school, to primary school to secondary school and then on to tertiary education.

What might happen if the relativities were reversed? What if there were sufficient resources to address early learning issues, especially in literacy and numeracy? Would we see not only improved student outcomes but also improved classroom environments, fewer behaviour problems and better teaching-learning opportunities?

Put bluntly: “More for all and even more for some”.