Like what you've read?

On Line Opinion is the only Australian site where you get all sides of the story. We don't
charge, but we need your support. Here�s how you can help.

  • Advertise

    We have a monthly audience of 70,000 and advertising packages from $200 a month.

  • Volunteer

    We always need commissioning editors and sub-editors.

  • Contribute

    Got something to say? Submit an essay.


 The National Forum   Donate   Your Account   On Line Opinion   Forum   Blogs   Polling   About   
On Line Opinion logo ON LINE OPINION - Australia's e-journal of social and political debate

Subscribe!
Subscribe





On Line Opinion is a not-for-profit publication and relies on the generosity of its sponsors, editors and contributors. If you would like to help, contact us.
___________

Syndicate
RSS/XML


RSS 2.0

Offering educational opportunities

By Stephen Hagan - posted Thursday, 21 February 2008


Henry Peter Brougham (1778 - 1868) a British writer, scientist, lawyer, Whig politician and abolitionist once said "Education makes people easy to lead, but difficult to drive; easy to govern, but impossible to enslave".

Cape York Institute Director Noel Pearson must be congratulated on his visionary approach to overcoming Indigenous education disadvantage in remote communities. His ambitious plan, revealed in The Australian on January 17, to recruit experienced teachers and the brightest graduates to work in the most disadvantaged Indigenous communities by offering performance-linked incentives of up to $50,000 a year, tax-free, is an achievable goal that should produce positive outcomes.

I say “should” as I’m well aware of the enormous obstacles from first-hand experience of the abysmal track record of some educators: those who are partial to peddling their draconian schooling philosophy of the noble savage in their daily instruction.

Advertisement

I recall in the early 1980s a bad experience in my final year teacher training practice at a Townsville primary school that adversely impacted my goal of being a teacher. So incensed was I of the racist material presented in the Queensland Primary School syllabus of Aboriginal people being blatantly referred to as thieves, rapist and murderers that I approached my supervising teacher to ask if I could use my own resources instead of the set text.

When the teacher, with support from his principal, emphatically denied my request I knew then that I would need to consider a career change - hence my move to Canberra to work under charismatic leader Charlie Perkins instead of clocking on as a teacher in a Queensland school the following year.

I knew I couldn’t bring myself to teach such racist nonsense when a third of my class was Indigenous. It would have been insufferable for me to have provided such erroneous instructions to those students cognisant of the impact I would have had on their fragile self esteem.

Most Indigenous people can recall awful experiences of being victims of racist name calling in the school yard. And back in those bad old days, when the head of my state was the ultra conservative Premier Joe Bjelkie-Peterson, it appeared teachers were at ease in dismissing or at least turning a blind eye to racist taunts in the playground.

So of course many of our mob don’t have fond memories of their schooling years and are suffering through limited work opportunities today. Many experts suggest it is the school as a whole which contributes to the failure of many Indigenous students, but I also believe a single bad teacher can turn a promising child into a problem child through ineffective teaching practices.

But have things really changed in the past two and a half decades, since my ill-fated experience in one of Townsville’s inner city schools, which would suggest that teachers are more open-minded today? While the descriptive language of “the noble savage” may have been modified or at least tinged with a more balanced rhetoric of some of the achievements of Indigenous sporting heroes in recent times - there is certainly no empirical evidence to suggest that teaching has improved and is now more culturally appropriate.

Advertisement

I lecture in a progressive university where Australian Indigenous Studies is a compulsory core unit for all trainee teachers, but despondently only 5 per cent of my students would qualify as having a basic operational knowledge of Australian Indigenous peoples, even after 12 formal years of schooling.

The extent of their limited knowledge is acquired, it would seem, from undertaking dot paintings on boomerangs or minor projects about the happy nomads in primary school during NAIDOC week or visiting a site of significance on a school excursion in a national park.

Some students may have been fortunate to have had regular visits from a local elder to their class or developed a good friendship with an Indigenous school friend and hence an appreciation of their culture. That however would be more the exception than the rule in most cases.

Teachers predominantly don’t teach quality Indigenous studies because they haven’t been provided with adequate course work during their studies on the topic at university.

But more than likely most teachers in the classroom today are too busy mastering other difficult school subjects such as maths or science and basically don’t view their Indigenous studies as a priority subject to warrant more than a scant overview.

It never ceases to amaze me how non-Indigenous students can provide some background information on American Indians or African tribesmen but fail dismally on questions pertaining to their local Indigenous tribe or for that matter any tribe in Australia.

So after another four years of university studies I fail to see how many teachers would be able to walk into a remote Indigenous classroom with any degree of confidence if they haven’t undertaken a core unit on the topic during their tertiary studies.

Even then a single course with no follow up practical work would be deemed light-on when venturing into the unfamiliar environment where very few children pass the national bench mark for literacy or numeracy. On top of that is the traumatising experience of living in a remote community that wouldn’t look out of place in a third world country.

Having said that I do believe Noel’s plan will work if he has the commitment from the Education Ministers in Queensland and the Northern Territory and a preparedness by their respective senior education bureaucrats to proactively support his proposal at all levels of its operation, for example, practice teaching supervision, suitable accommodation, adequate resources and fully functional air-conditioned classroom facilities.

Most importantly the plan must also include the provision for commensurate remuneration (pay) for Indigenous teacher assistants who will undoubtedly be called upon to do the lion’s share of tuition and daily supervision of family clan groupings within the classroom and liaison with parents out of school hours whose language at home is not English.

I would like to think that Australia has matured as a nation eight years into the new millennium where a child who started their education in a remote Indigenous community can fit comfortably into secondary school and continue on to tertiary level and sit at ease in a medical, law or engineering class of their choosing.

I believe Noel’s $67 million plan is a significant Indigenous education policy shift that ought to be supported by the State and Federal Government as well as sponsored in full by the mining sector who benefit most from mineral wealth generated from Indigenous lands.

Although many Indigenous commentators, including myself, have previously raised the issue of generously remunerating teachers in remote communities for outstanding school results - this is the first time that the concept has a total dollar figure fixed to it.

Whether you love of loath Noel he has the capacity to get his message onto the front pages of newspapers and consequently is able to illicit instant responses from the government. However I qualify my comments by adding that this plan will be doomed to failure if it is not supported by all levels of government in addressing the atrociously high demand that exists in these communities for adequate accommodation for local inhabitants.

I believe that even the brightest of students in these communities will struggle to attain a satisfactory school report card if they have to compete with members of three or more families permanently occupying the same dwelling.

Waiting in turn to have a shower in the morning or to use the toilet and then competing for the limited food, cereals for breakfast and bread to make lunch, would tax an adult, let alone a child. It may be stretching it a bit to expect the child in the overcrowded house to find a piece of fruit in the refrigerator for morning tea.

So as you could appreciate the offer of money - as much as $50,000 tax-free for experienced teachers - is a step in the right direction but will not gain the desired outcomes if the home environment isn’t also remedied.

I would also like to see financial incentives offered to all tradespeople who are in urgent demand in those communities: carpenters, plumbers, mechanics, electricians and so on.

As an urban Indigenous person I’d hate to experience a malfunction of my toilet, or have a power failure at home, or realise a major mechanical problem with my car, or sustain serious storm damage to my house. Worse still, I’d hate to be told over the telephone that the nearest tradesperson is a thousand kilometres away and I’ll have to make do for another four weeks - at least.

So yes there are many things we take for granted in large rural and urban areas. And if there is one thing I’d like our brothers and sisters to enjoy in the remote communities the most - it would be equity in the provision of goods and services.

For the most part I would like to see normality as an everyday occurrence so that children in remote communities can begin their school life with an expectation that they too can fulfil their dreams of being a plumber, actor, stock broker or prime minister because their school offered the same educational opportunities as any private school in any Australian city.

  1. Pages:
  2. 1
  3. 2
  4. 3
  5. All


Discuss in our Forums

See what other readers are saying about this article!

Click here to read & post comments.

9 posts so far.

Share this:
reddit this reddit thisbookmark with del.icio.us Del.icio.usdigg thisseed newsvineSeed NewsvineStumbleUpon StumbleUponsubmit to propellerkwoff it

About the Author

Stephen Hagan is Editor of the National Indigenous Times, award winning author, film maker and 2006 NAIDOC Person of the Year.

Other articles by this Author

All articles by Stephen Hagan

Creative Commons LicenseThis work is licensed under a Creative Commons License.

Photo of Stephen Hagan
Article Tools
Comment 9 comments
Print Printable version
Subscribe Subscribe
Email Email a friend
Advertisement

About Us Search Discuss Feedback Legals Privacy