AEU President Angelo Gavrielatos (third from right) holds killer boomerangs presented to him by the Aboriginal Members Committee as a gift for his work as a 'warrior' to further indigenous rights. He is pictured with Executive member Waine Donovan, Aboriginal Education Coordinator Charline Emzin-Boyd, Country Organiser Nicole Major, Kerry Perrin and Marcia Browning.

5000 Indigenous children without a local school to go to

By

Kerri Carr

More than 5000 indigenous children in the Northern Territory are denied access to education.

Nine months into the federal government intervention in Aboriginal communities in the Northern Territory, the situation was still "dire" with respect to what was necessary, Australian Education Union President Angelo Gavrielatos told delegates to Federation's Aboriginal Members Conference on April 5.

"What needs to be done in those communities is to ensure access to high quality education in communities - it doesn't exist," he said. "Here's the whole part of the equation that just blew me out of the water in terms of the intervention: they were going to penalise people in terms of welfare payments in communities if they didn't send their kids to school.

"But, here's the problem: there's no school to send them to."

"There are more than 5000 Indigenous kids in the Northern Territory who are denied access to education pre-school to secondary.

"It doesn't exist in their community," he said.

On Northern Territory Government policy, Mr Gavrielatos explained the staffing formula was not based on enrolments, but on attendance.

So, you may have 100 kids enrolled at your school, but that's not your staffing. Your staffing is calculated on an average of how many kids attend over a period of time.

"If that's not deficit thinking, I don't know what is.

"That's lowest common denominator thinking: 'If they haven't turned up, they never will.'"

"And if they do, guess what? There won't be a teacher for them or a desk for them when they do turn up," Mr Gavrielatos said.

Forum to reflect on apology

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