Australian Aboriginal Education Apartheid means schools with attendance rates of below 70% and 80% of Northern Territory Aboriginal (Indigenous) children failing to meet basic literacy ands numeracy levels [1, 2, 3].
Australian Aboriginal Educational Apartheid and truancy scandal report (2013): “The federal government is going back to the past to persuade more Aboriginal parents to send their children to school. It will spend $28 million over two years to fund 400 truancy officers for more than 40 schools in remote communities throughout the Northern Territory, Western Australia, Queensland, NSW and South Australia. When more money becomes available, the program will be spread to other communities… The officers – five for every 100 children enrolled – will work with families on a case-management basis to tackle reasons behind a child's truancy. They won't have powers apart from persuasion, however, if their efforts fail, other compliance measures could apply. Most of the targeted schools have reported attendance rates of below 70 per cent during the past five years.” [1].
Professor Helen Hughes AO on gross Educational Apartheid in the Northern Territory of Apartheid Australia (2008): “”Aboriginal schools in the Northern Territory have failed to provide Indigenous students with these essentials for entry into the labour force. Some 5,000 Indigenous teenagers, and another 5,000 young men and women in their 20s, are unable to speak English, and are illiterate and non-numerate. They cannot read road signs, menus, or instructions on packages of medicines, cleaning materials, and other packaged goods. Aborigines are often accused of using taxis wastefully, but many cannot read well enough to use public transport. They cannot fill shelves in a supermarket, or serve in a shop or café … These young peoples’ education has made them more foreign in their own country than the latest immigrants from Somalia… To overcome the damage these youngsters’ education has done to them would require sheltered accommodation in English-speaking environments, mentored part-time introductory jobs and one-on-one tuition for one or two years. The cost of sheltered accommodation for teenagers who are unable to live at home is $900 a week in Sydney. If the Northern Territory were serious about tackling the deficit its Aboriginal education polices have created, the cost would be between $500 million and $1 billion.” [2].
Professor Helen Hughes AO on gross Educational Apartheid for Indigenous children from urban welfare dependent families or remote communities (2008): “Australia, however, has a serious problem in low participation in higher education by students from low socio-economic backgrounds. Indigenous children from urban welfare dependent families, just like non-Indigenous children from similar welfare dependent backgrounds, have very low participation in higher education. The mainstream schools they attend – the so-called “sink” schools – do not provide adequate primary and secondary education to enable these children to proceed to university. Children from remote communities are even more disadvantaged because Indigenous schools in those communities fail to teach basic literacy and numeracy, let alone a full primary curriculum. For these children, the chances of progressing to higher education are negligible. The few Indigenous students from urban welfare dependent families or remote communities who qualify for university entrance are almost always those whose parents have them board with relatives to access quality mainstream schools, or those at quality boarding schools on scholarships, Current government school reform programs do not even aim to eliminate Indigenous schooling deficits (“close the education gap”) by 2018. Under current programs, ten years from now, most Indigenous children from urban welfare dependent backgrounds and remote communities will still be excluded from for [sic] higher education by their sub-standard education… To put it simply, id children are not taught to read, write and count, they have no hope of going to university.. No amount of affirmative action will make any difference.” [3]. ”
[1]. AAP, “Abbott Government to spend $28m on truancy officers to help raise Aboriginal school attendance”, Sydney Morning Herald, 20 December 2013: http://www.smh.com.au/federal-politics/political-news/abbott-government-to-spend-28m-on-truancy-officers-to-help-raise-aboriginal-school-attendance-20131220-2zorj.html .
[2]. Helen Hughes, “Indigenous education in the Northern Territory”, CIS Policy Monograph 83: http://www.cis.org.au/images/stories/policy-monographs/pm-83.pdf .
[3]. Helen Hughes, “The Centre for Independent Studies submission to the Review of Higher Education Access and Outcomes for Aborigjnal and Torres Straits Islander People”, 18 November 2011: http://www.cis.org.au/images/stories/submissions/sub-review-of-higher-education-access-outcomes-181111-hh-sh.pdf .