The Central Land Council says a report by the Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies highlights the flawed methods successive Federal and Territory governments have used to make policy and the detrimental consequences those decisions have had on Aboriginal people.
Central Land Council director David Ross said the AIATSIS report finds that the Northern Territory Government’s decision to dismantle bilingual education ignored national and international evidence of the value of bilingual education and the language rights of Aboriginal people. He said the Territory Government not only decided to dismiss those issues, but failed to produce any research or evidence that supported its actions.
“The AIATSIS report outlines in detail a series of reports over the years that have recommended certain actions be taken to improve education for Aboriginal people,” Mr Ross said. “You name it there’s been a report and recommendations presented on it, but what this latest report makes clear is how few of them have been taken up and how many have been ignored.
“This has become a cycle of neglect by governments of all persuasions. They accept reports, say they’ll consider them and then ignore the recommendations. Inevitably conditions worsen, prompting Aboriginal people to be blamed for the problems and then governments make sweeping policy changes that are unrelated to the recommendations and lack any evidence to support them.
“The changes to bilingual education are an example of this and the intervention is an extreme example,” He said.
“People’s pleas for extra resources to back bilingual education or for more police and housing to help secure their communities are ignored and then they are the ones to get the blame for the failures right before governments decide to march in take over.”
“This report by AIATSIS should lead to not only the Territory Government revisiting its ignorant decision to scrap the bilingual program but also committing to improving the bilingual program and expanding it to include all remote indigenous schools,” Mr Ross said.
“The Territory education system continues to fail remote indigenous students. If the Australian government is serious about ‘closing the gap’ it should ensure the Territory’s education system is overhauled in line with the findings of this report, including a national commitment to recognise Indigenous language rights.
“Bilingual education can play a key role in improving student results in remote communities.”
