Rural and Remote Education - NT
Rural
and Remote Education - NT
Yirrkala school meeting, 12
May 1999 - notes
The inquiry held
informal discussions with three groups of teachers
Group 1
The first group of
teachers told the Inquiry about the lack of secondary education for the
students in the community. Yirrkala Community Education Centre (CEC) is
not an accredited provider of secondary education and the school can only
provide Foundation Studies, General Studies and Intensive English Courses.
None of the Yirrkala students go to the neighbouring town, Nhulunbuy,
to go to high school. The teachers feel that the courses the school provides
are insufficient and inappropriate.
Group 2
The second group
consisted of teachers from various schools in the area. They are all educated
or currently being educated at Batchelor College. These teachers told
the Inquiry about the lack of incentives to attract teachers to remote
areas. The biggest problem is the lack of housing and the poor conditions
of the houses provided for teachers. This is seen as one of the main reasons
for high teacher turnover. The local teachers feel that they are being
discriminated against because they, unlike the teachers transferred from
other areas, are not provided with a house.
These teachers were
also very concerned about the decision to phase out the Bilingual Education
Program. They consider it to be a human right of the students to receive
education in their own language. They think bilingual education is important
and should be strongly supported by the NT government.
Finally these teachers
expressed concern about the lack of specially trained teachers to take
care of students with special needs, disabilities and learning difficulties.
Group 3
The third group of
teachers told the Inquiry about cultural education. They told about their
work with creating a culturally appropriate curriculum that will enable
the teachers to teach the students about their own culture. The Bilingual
Education Program is a very important part of this work.
Last
updated 2 December 2001.