Nyirripi school pushed to brink after education funding cuts

NYIRRIPI school may be left with just two teachers for its 50 enrolled students after the Territory government takes the axe to education funding.

Jacinta Price and Yamba at the "Growing up in Nyiripi" book launch.

NYIRRIPI school may be left with just two teachers for its 50 enrolled students after the Territory government takes the axe to education funding.

Two outgoing teachers voiced their concerns at the launch of Growing up in Nyirripi, a book written by Nyirripi students and published by the Indigenous Literacy Foundation.

The book features a collection of short stories and pictures written and drawn by local children about life in the remote, desert community of Nyirripi.

"Yamba" the Honey Ant, Jacinta Price and some of the students from Nyiripi School at the "Growing up in Nyiripi" book launch.

But such innovative projects, that the Walpiri children say helped them to learn English, are now under threat.

The bush school, some 400km from Alice Springs, started the year off with four teachers, including principal Wendy Jones, Virginia King and her husband Bob Carter.

But Ms King and Mr Carter, who have resigned for personal reasons, have voiced fears that senior students will stop attending because there will be no teachers there for them.

‘‘They didn’t replace us when we left. We had three classes. We had a junior class, an upper primary class and a secondary class,’’ said Ms King.

‘‘The secondary class was really viable; sometimes with 14 or 15 kids attending.

‘‘When we left, Wendy had to absorb all the second- ary kids into the upper primary class and basically none of them were going,’’

The concept for Growing up in Nyirripi’ came from two of the former senior students, Lisa Marshall and Desphina Brown.

‘‘Lisa and Desphina started it,’’ said Ms King, who supervised the project.

‘‘They were Year 11 and 12 students. There’s not much offered for those older kids in the bush.’’

Mr Carter said with only two teachers, students such as Lisa and Desphina were now staying home.

‘‘The department can talk about teacher numbers but if Wendy took over everything Virginia and I were doing this year, that would mean kids like Desphina and Lisa, with their level of maturity and literacy, are in the same room as small kids who have trouble communicating in English, much less reading and writing,’’ Mr Carter said.

So many of those (senior) kids out there have just drifted away.’’

Singer and songwriter Jacinta Price, who helped launch Growing up in Nyirripi, said she thought the project was a wonderful, positive experience for the young authors.

‘‘It creates self-worth and identity for them to know their stories are important and who they are as individuals,’’said Ms Price, who is a Walpiri woman.

‘‘They can become anything they want when they’re older and know what they’re capable of doing.’’