Put your neck out for Aboriginal education

JOHN LESTER has issued a challenge over commitment to Aboriginal education.

I've stood up and said to the Minister face-to-face, "Minister, you've got to show balls on this issue." "Balls" and "ovaries" have got to come to the forefront in terms of where we're at. We must make sure that we make the commitments.

The gap between indigenous and mainstream results just isn't changing -- on HSC -- on all those sorts of things -- there's no significant shift. And while we all may be able to talk about 'the' Aborigine who's done pretty well or the couple of kids that we've got through...the reality is the majority of our indigenous people aren't getting through.

One of the saddest things I see is young indigenous kids at pre school age proudly coming forward performing song and dance and culture, alive, alert, bright, healthy and active and think to myself, "how are we going to stuff them up in the next few years so that they won't move forward?" What do we do to those lively minds and activities? Why is it that TAFE attract four per cent plus of indigenous students yet we're flat out keeping students in our schools? Why is it also that in those four per cent Aboriginal people within TAFE colleges aren't proceeding onto vocational education and training to the normal range of levels?

If you analyse the data, the data is not good because basically they're playing "catch-up". Quite often they're repeating programs just to keep involved and off unemployment. There are indigenous people who perform at the highest level of the HSC.

My research is showing and the majority of those Aboriginal kids go week after week, year after year, through school until they get to about year 8 or 9 and then they disappear. It's like drowning and, for those people who have been involved unfortunately, in those sorts of experiences, it's a very quiet death and that's what's happening. We are not engaging that big group of indigenous people who sit in our classes mildly accepting of what's going on, generally not rocking the boat, not being known as famous, not being known as disruptive but moving through. Our challenge is to engage those kids.

We have to put our neck out and make things happen.

Professor John Lester is Head of Wollutuka Centre, School of Aboriginal Studies, Professor of Aboriginal Studies and Director Umullika Post-Graduate Indigenous Research Centre at the University of Newcastle. This is an edited version of Professor Lester's speech to Federation's November Council.

Sobering questions

• Why are indigenous people more successful at university that at the higher school certificate? Professor Lester asked.
• What is in the concrete at Maclean High School/combined TAFE where indigenous students can walk from a high school environment in the same drawing area, the same capacity -- everything's the same -- 50 metres across a concrete pass in front of the joint use library to TAFE and all of a sudden find success? Professor Lester asked. "We really need to get CSI [television show Crime Scene Investigation] down there to investigate what's in that concrete," Professor Lester answered.

For further information

February 2004 contents