As a former teacher she has a first-hand knowledge of the trials and tribulations educators have to go through on a daily basis.

She also has experience of teaching in remote areas having taught in her mother’s home town of Numbulwar. A desire to learn more of her mother’s heritage, culture and language lead Uibo down the path of teaching. For her, teaching was worth it for the kids.

She stepped into the role of politics to improve the outcomes of the community she adopted as her own and, in just two years, has been handed the responsibility of steering the Territory’s education system into the future.

Uibo was born and bred in the Territory and her mother is a Nunggubuyu lady from Numbulwar and Wanindilyakwa from Groote Eylandt. Her father is a second generation Australian and is of Estonian, Irish and South African descent.

ON everybody’s mind is improving results and ensuring students, at the end of their schooling, are equipped to head out into world.

At its core is attendance. Put simply, if a student doesn’t attend school on a regular basis, they can’t gain the skills to help them outside of the classroom.

Students need to be able to read and write but sadly some just aren’t getting those basic skills.

Education Department statistics show indigenous students are far less likely to be heading to school than non-indigenous students.

Cultural needs, social factors and housing all play an important role in the likely hood of a student heading to school.

Attendance typically starts strong at the beginning of the school year, however dips throughout the year.

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Beginning this year in the Barkly region, indigenous students had an attendance rate of 50.8 per cent while in the Arnhem region it was 51.3 per cent. That means out of the eight weeks in term 1, those students were absent for four weeks.

Attendance also dwindles the older student gets regardless of their race.

Uibo believes getting youths to school is about community engagement and starting the habit of going to school from a young age.

“Attendance particularly in remote areas is always a big one. Related to my electorate in the Arnhem area, there are schools that have been struggling with attendance but are looking at getting some really clear strategies to improve attendance,” she said.

“We have the framework and about that approach but it’s about making sure were working individually with schools.”

TO combat poor attendance the Education Department created the Every Day Counts — Northern Territory School Attendance Strategy 2016-2018. It puts the target at achieving a 90 per cent attendance rate by the end of 2018. With six months to go there’s a lot to achieve.

Only 28 out of 149 government schools listed on the Education Department website achieved an attendance rate over 90 per cent in Term 1 of this year.

Alekarenge School has an enrolment of 115 students but an attendance rate of 39.2 per cent while Uibo’s old school Numbulwar School has an attendance rate of 56.6 per cent and an enrolment of 185 students. Uibo admits there’s a long way to go when it comes to reaching that mark.

“It’s a big operation definitely, I mean having a piece of paper and saying this is our strategy, you really need the community behind you, you really need to make sure you’ve got positive relationships with the community so you have that buy in from families from communities and seeing the importance of having the relationships with the school and supporting the school,” she said.

“I think there’s always room for improvement. Like I said there are some schools that are improving.”

Uibo said a tactic Numbulwar School used to get kids going to school was attendance officers.

“When I was teaching we used to have attendance teams come in and track students who maybe didn’t come to school at all,” she said.

“So it’s about building up that capacity. It’s not shocking anyone into coming to school every day all day if they aren’t used to being in that environment. It’s about building up attendance.”

A national Remote Schools Attendance Strategy was developed in 2014 to get kids to school and runs in schools in indigenous communities.

Earlier this year a report on the program found it to be successful when it was flexible and adapted to each community.

The Every Day Counts report also found the rate of attendance had plateaued since the program had been implemented and suggested truant officers needed to adapt attendance methods to fit each family.

UIBO said the government was working in other areas to improve attendance.

Families as First Teachers has been rolled out across the Territory with 38 centres now running.

The program aims to get parents and their children exposed to a school-based setting so when time comes for their child to attend school it isn’t such a big shock.

The program also provides vital information and access to learning materials to families.

“Parents who come in and support the FaFT programs can become teachers and they become the experts and people can see the culture coming into the school in those early years,” Uibo said.

SCHOOLS have begun to take it upon themselves, while working with community leaders to improve education standards in their community.

It’s part of a push from the Department to give more authority back to the school, to get parents more involved and engaged in their child’s education.

Gunbalanya and Lajamanu Schools have led the way by remodelling their school calendars to better reflect the needs of their community.

Gunbalanya School kicked off the school year earlier than other schools on January 8 running until the end of March. The earlier term starts allow the school to take up to five weeks off during the dry season.

“It would great if there were schools who wanted to change the model of what the school terms are based on evidence and data,” she said.

“But it’s been driven by the community and has to have that support from the community and the families to be implemented as part of the school strategy and policy to have those different term dates.”

She was optimistic that more schools would follow suit and look in to changing their term dates.

Despite these changes attendance rates sit below the 90 per cent target outlined in the everyday counts strategy.

WHILE Uibo is currently at the helm of the Territory’s education system, she believes a return to the classroom could be on the cards after her political career.

“People ask me do you miss teaching and I say I miss the kids,” she said.

“It would be in the youth space if I moved on from politics. Young people keep me young.”

With just a month as Education Minister under her belt she is optimistic she can steer education in right direction. Reaching the goal of 90 per cent attendance of students in schools will be up at the end of the year and it’s a tough score to reach. But with community support and ingenious ideas, schools are slowly turning attendance around.