Issue Brief 15 / 1997

The recent National Review of Education for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples (in 1995) called for research and analysis of the immediate and long-term complexities of building community-controlled education for Indigenous Australians.

In spite of over 20 years of Government promotion of self-determination in education as a pathway to better educational outcomes for Indigenous Australians:

• Less than 2 per cent (1,350) of Australia's 83,411 Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students were enrolled in independent community-controlled Indigenous schools in 1994.
• Most Indigenous students attended government schools (88.0 per cent) or Catholic schools (8.5 per cent).

What is an independent community-controlled Indigenous school?

The Department of Employment, Education, Training and Youth Affairs (DEETYA), Aboriginal Education Branch, has funded a small number of independent Aboriginal schools through the Indigenous Strategic Initiatives Program since the beginning of the Aboriginal Education Policy in 1990. These schools are neither part of State or Territory government educational systems nor affiliated non-government systems (for example, the Catholic system schools). Communities sometimes contribute to their operational costs and the curriculum is often shaped by the community according to its unique interests and needs.

• While Indigenous independent schools are often viewed as strongholds of educational self-determination, there are surprisingly few such schools in Australia.
• Until now little has been known about the locations, enrolments, staffing or curriculum of these schools.

How many are there and where are they?

Unpublished DEETYA data show that there were only 20 independent Indigenous schools with predominantly Indigenous enrolments in 1994. There were 12 in Western Australia, four in Queensland, one in New South Wales, one in Victoria and two in the Northern Territory. Six were primary schools, five secondary and the remaining nine had both primary and secondary students (see table below).

Independent community-controlled Indigenous schools, 1994.

How many students attended these schools?

The size of these schools varied, with enrolments ranging from 21 to 206 students. The average was 62 students per school. The two schools with the smallest enrolments were in Western Australia (21 and 24 students), while the two schools with the largest enrolments were in the Northern Territory (206 and 121 students). Most of the schools (17) served only Indigenous students while three included a small number of non-Indigenous students (15.0 per cent, 8.3 per cent and 2.5 per cent).

What roles do Indigenous staff play in these schools?

Less than one in five (17.0 per cent) of the Indigenous staff in the schools were employed as teachers, and only about one in eighteen (5.5 per cent) were employed as administrators. Most of the Indigenous staff (56.7 per cent) provided instruction in local culture or served in school-community liaison positions.

How did the curriculum compare to mainstream schools?

Indigenous students in independent schools are far more likely to learn about Indigenous culture or history and learn Indigenous languages than are their counterparts in other types of Australian schools; their chances of receiving that instruction from an Indigenous teacher are also much greater. For example, seventeen of the schools (85 per cent) taught Indigenous history or culture in some form, while thirteen (65 per cent) provided instruction in an Indigenous language. Eighteen of the schools (90 per cent) employed Indigenous teachers though it is likely that all students had contact with Indigenous adults responsible for some type of learning activity.

The future

It is clear that community-controlled education is a high priority for some communities, yet little is known about the educational and cultural outcomes in these schools and the degree to which they address and provide for the needs of their Indigenous communities. A thorough evaluation of existing schools is necessary to better inform communities and policy makers about the costs and benefits of this important educational avenue.

This Issue Brief summarised CAEPR Discussion Paper 111, 'Having it both ways: the continuing complexities of community-controlled Indigenous education' by R.G. Schwab published in July 1996. It was prepared by R.G. Schwab and edited by Linda Roach and Lynette Liddle.