Five homelands learning centres in remote NT get $3.5 million infrastructure boost

Five remote learning centres will see their outdated infrastructure upgraded. Here’s what it means to those communities.

Bremer Island Elder Djalinda Ulamari. Picture: Sierra Haigh

Remote learning centres will finally see building boosts after teachers said the Territory’s education infrastructure was failing 71 per cent of the NT’s students.

The Gutjangan homelands learning centre will get IT upgrades and new teacher accommodation through the school’s $1.5 million allocation for infrastructural boosts.

Bremer Island Elder Djalinda Ulamari was thrilled with the news of planned upgrades for the learning centre.

“That’s exciting for us all, as community coming together to achieve for a long time,” she said.

“It’s so important for our young kids to come to a homelands school and enjoy being at school in the homelands, because that’s where we need to have our kids.

“I’ve always been passionate for my grandchildren growing up and for other children as well to go to enjoy school and learn about languages, read and write, to have that knowledge.”

Laynhapuy Homelands School principal Abi White. Picture: Sierra Haigh

Laynhapuy Homelands School principal Abi White said it was a “great boost for the community”.

Ms White said the investment – which is part of a larger $3.5 million investment for homelands learning centre – was an exciting acknowledgment and endorsement for the Territory’s hardworking remote educators.

“Yolngu in this region have always had a focus on homelands, they’ve always been on their homelands, and they’ve always spoken very strongly about education in those places,” she said.

“We support (this) education provision so that people can stay on Country.”

NT Department of Education chief executive Karen Weston. Picture: Sierra Haigh

Four more homelands learning centres will also receive upgrades thanks budget announcement made on Thursday.

Education Department chief executive Karen Weston said the funding boost was part of a program the NT government had been running for almost five years.

Ms Weston said each learning centre took in “fairly small numbers of children” and some of the infrastructure had not been updated in “some time”.

“It’s really great to have a rolling program of infrastructure spending so that we can just get out and make sure that the teachers who work in those places and the homeland teachers have good facilities,” she said.

“There’s the additional need to have some housing and accommodation for visiting teachers in those sites, we’ve got to do that.”