Radical overhaul for indigenous schooling

DROPPING bilingual teaching and sending students to board in towns from year 9 are just two recommendations in a new review of indigenous schooling.

A REVIEW of indigenous schooling in the Northern Territory has revealed "catastrophic failure of secondary education in the bush".

Last July the government commissioned the review, pointing to NAPLAN results that lagged far behind the rest of the country, particularly in remote communities.

Education consultant Bruce Wilson found major systemic problems with the way education is being delivered to indigenous students.

"There's no consistent approach to indigenous education: timelines for programs are way too short, and there are constant changes in direction across the department," he said at the release of his report on Wednesday.

"Efforts to engage communities have been inconsistent and mostly ineffective, resourcing is poorly managed and distributed, and short-term funding affects long-term planning."

Indigenous children in the NT are already well behind their peers when they start school, and by Year 7 students in very remote schools are five years of schooling behind indigenous students in very remote schools in the rest of the country.

By Year 9, only 10 per cent of children in very remote schools in the NT are able to read and write effectively enough to participate in their own education, Mr Wilson said.

School attendance is worsening, with students in very remote secondary schools turning up only one-and-a-half days per week, while educators say students must attend at least four days a week to succeed.

"There are a whole lot of things that school systems cannot fix," Mr Wilson said, factors including extraordinary demography and geography of the NT, low incomes and employment for indigenous people, family disputes, gambling, drinking, drugs, fighting, and trauma.

The report features 51 recommendations which Education Minister Peter Chandler completely agreed with, but one: there's no choice but to act radically.

"This frightens the hell out of me ... but it's a mountain we need to climb," he said.

Mr Wilson recommended there be a program at least 10 years long in place, supported by a single bi-partisan agreement with the federal government.

Mr Chandler said the program would be expensive - already, half of the NT's $871 million education budget is spent on indigenous education.

Key recommendations that could prove unpopular in communities include stopping bilingual teaching in favour of a predominantly English-based education, and sending remote students to board at urban schools from Year 9 onwards.

"If we can't deliver a proper secondary education in the bush, we need to start to give these children real opportunities and put them into facilities that do have the scale required," Mr Chandler said.

The boarding facilities have yet to be built, with $40.5 million earmarked for them in this year's NT budget.

The government hopes to begin implementing Mr Wilson's recommendations by August.