WHY AREN'T INDIGENOUS LITERACY RATES IMPROVING IN THE NT?
A Charles Darwin University survey has brought Indigenous adult literacy to the forefront of Australia’s media with the shocking statistic that nearly 9 out of 10 Indigenous adults do not have the literacy skills to cope in the workplace. While this is indeed a shocking, and quite frankly a disturbing figure, it didn’t come as a surprise for those of us living and working in remote communities.
How is this even possible in a country like ours, you may ask? Why do so many Indigenous Australians still fall behind their non-Indigenous peers in the areas of literacy and numeracy? This is the million dollar question on every government official’s lips, with the Australian Government committing $23.8 million over five years to fund the Flexible Literacy for Remote Primary School Programme. The program aims to “address the disparity in literacy outcomes of children in remote primary schools”, and I’ll let you in on a secret – it won’t work.
Why?
Because the program will be conducted in English.
Fifty-four percent of Indigenous people in the NT speak an Indigenous language at home, with this rate jumping to more than 80 % for those living remotely. In remote communities such as Ngukurr (the community I live and work in as a speech pathologist this year), children grow up speaking Kriol, as well as learning a number of other traditional languages. For children growing up in Ngukurr, the first year of school is often the first time they are exposed to English, and even then it is only their non-Indigenous teacher that provides this exposure, as communication with peers, parents and community members are conducted in their home language.
For Indigenous students starting school in remote NT communities, competency in oral English is assumed, with teachers using oral and written English to convey instructions, information, and explanations for classroom activities. Is it really that surprising then that many Indigenous students aren’t doing as well as their non-Indigenous classmates? How can we expect a child to learn when they’re being taught in a foreign language?
But, you may say, there are many ESL students who attend Australian schools and are able to achieve academic success. How is this any different to these remote students?
It all comes down to exposure. An ESL student living in a metropolitan or rural area of Australia will not only be exposed to English in the classroom but also in all aspects of their lives. They will hear English on the school bus, in the classroom, from their schoolmates, at the shops and anytime they need to interact with another person who is not a family member. They are constantly receiving a high level of exposure to English and consequently are provided with many rich learning opportunities to become proficient in the language. This is not the case for Indigenous Australian children living remotely.
To put it simply, the system that is in place is the equivalent of sending your English speaking child to a school where the teachers speak German and the school curriculum is conducted entirely in German – oh and your child is expected to be proficient in German on their first day of school despite having limited exposure to it beforehand. You won’t be able to communicate with your child’s teacher about their learning and you won’t be able to help your child with their homework – how could you? It’s in German! Your child will most likely sit in the classroom in a state of confusion, unable to follow the teacher's instructions. They will become unwilling to go back to the building where they are made to feel incompetent and shamed. Their German will improve very slowly as the only time they hear it is from their teacher – they communicate in English with their peers, parents, and anyone else they see in their community.
They wouldn’t do so well would they? And this is without taking into account that more than 90 % of young Aboriginal children have hearing-aid-level deafness for much of the year. So not only are the kids being taught in a foreign language which is confusing enough, but they’re also struggling to hear what the teacher is saying.
It shouldn’t come as a surprise, then, that little progress is being made in our remote school systems. In the 6 year period between 2008 and 2014 there was no statistically significant improvement nationally in the number of Indigenous students meeting the National Minimum Standard in reading and numeracy. So why are we continuing to fund an education system that hasn’t been able to produce any significant outcomes? Teaching in English is not working – something needs to change.
This is not to say that we shouldn’t be teaching our remote Indigenous students English – it’s undeniable in Australia that we need our children to be literate and numerate in English in order to be able to achieve academic success. However, it is evident that the current system is not producing Indigenous graduates who are literate and numerate in English.
A curriculum which produces academic success is based on evidence, not on politician’s opinions and ratings. The Education Department, both national and NT, need to take another look at bilingual education and its possible implementation in remote schools. I urge Simon Birmingham and Eva Lawler (the Federal Education Minister and the Northern Territory Education Minister respectively) to sit down with the experts – Indigenous elders and community members, teachers, linguists, speech pathologists, and academics – and create a new, evidence based education plan for our remote Indigenous students. Because it doesn’t take an expert to work out that what we’re currently doing isn’t working.
Madeleine Thorburn is a speech pathologist living and working in the remote community of Ngukurr in south-east Arnhem Land.
