NT schools in crisis: Students ‘denied human rights’

An alleged violation of the human right to education has prompted calls for a royal commission in the NT and raised the possibility of a class-action suit on behalf of students.

West Arnhem Shire mayor Matthew Ryan.

An alleged violation of the human right to education has prompted calls for a royal commission in the Northern Territory and raised the possibility of a class-action suit on behalf of students.

“Education is a human right and this is a human rights failure,” said West Arnhem Shire mayor Matthew Ryan, who is based in Maningrida.

“We should go for a class ­action. It is a basic human right for all Australians to have an education and we’re being denied that here.”

The calls come in response to The Australian’s NT Schools in Crisis series, which exposed a $214.8m funding shortfall that disproportionately affects remote and Indigenous students and ­revealed that some remote classrooms don’t have power, water or full-time registered teachers.

The community of Maningrida, 500km east of Darwin in Arnhem Land, had 407 students enrolled last year, but only received funding for 187, The Australian has revealed.

Mr Ryan said his community was investigating creating its own independent schools in homelands

Northern Territory Education Minister Eva Lawler, who has ­declined to be interviewed by The Australian, told ABC Radio ­Darwin that the territory had a “very strong, very robust education system”.

“I am appalled by what (the minister) said,” Mr Ryan said. “How can she continue to deny failures in education, and keep saying ‘it’s all good, mate’?”

Opposition Leader Lia Finocchiaro said: “To come out … and tell families here in the Territory that everything is fine is flat-out disrespectful to every Territorian who wants and deserves a good education and isn’t getting it.”

Mulka MP Yingiya Mark ­Guyula said the NT government should “be held accountable for the decades of failed education through a court of law or Makarrata process”.

“Communities should be compensated for the harm that has been caused,” he said.

“Everyone in our communities: the children, the families, the leaders – we are made to feel as though we are worthless and incapable but I believe the findings of a court or a royal commission (into education) would clearly show that the failure is not ours.”

There is precedent for legal ­action in the Territory against the government on the basis of education provision. In 2012, the community of Wadeye, 400km southwest of Darwin, received a $7.7m payout after filing a complaint with the Human Rights Commission arguing the school had been underfunded for 30 years.

Former co-principal of Our Lady of the Sacred Heart Thamarrurr Catholic School in Wadeye and senior traditional owner Tobias Nganbe said that for every dollar put into the education of a student in Darwin at the time, Wadeye received only 75c.

“We’ve got people that aren’t literate, young people that are not able to read and write; they’re ­depending on people like myself and others, grandparents from those days who went to school, to fill out the forms, to look after them. It’s very difficult,” he said.

National Justice Project CEO George Newhouse said residents of affected communities should complain to the Australian Human Rights Commission.

“The Race Discrimination Act provides a remedy for individuals when governments deliver services to First Nations peoples and those services are defective – and the defect arises as a result of race,” he said.

Federal Education Minister Jason Clare said the O’Brien Review, due in October, would make recommendations to inform the next National School Reform Agreement in 2024.

Federal Indigenous Affairs Minister Linda Burney said the government had announced an extra $40.4 million for schools in Central Australia.