Help us ensure remote students' right to access all levels of education
In 2013 the Giles Government commissioned consultant Bruce Wilson to carry out a review of Indigenous Education in the NT. He described remote education as an almost universal failure and proposed sweeping changes to the delivery of education in remote Indigenous communities, in particular:
- The removal of secondary programs from almost all remote schools
- Encouraging secondary students to attend boarding schools or regional high schools
- Placing priority on English-only instruction, at the exclusion of Aboriginal languages
- The introduction of the controversial Direct Instruction literacy and numeracy program at a number of schools
Many AEU members (as well as prominent individuals and organisations) responded to Wilson's review and criticised his assumptions, his dismissal of inconvenient evidence and many of his conclusions and recommendations. For example, he never addressed the resourcing deficit that afflicts all remote schools due to the bipartisan policy in the NT of funding schools based on attendance rather than enrolment.