Abbott to deliver indigenous schools blueprint this year

Tony Abbott will deliver a statement to parliament offering a pathway to improving indigenous attendance at remote schools.

Special envoy Tony Abbott: ‘Is it any wonder that we’re not getting great results?’ Picture: AAP

Tony Abbott says he will deliver a statement to parliament by the end of the year offering a pathway to improving indigenous attendance at remote schools with a view to introducing changes early next year.

The former prime minister,­ who is special envoy on indigenous affairs, said it was important to start with a “very candid acknowledgment that the current situation is pretty well disastrous” with poor school attendance rates in remote communities having become entrenched over about 40 years. He said it was important to address the “reluctance to expect the same of indigenous kids that we expect of other Australian kids” and to tackle the “instinct that indigenous kids need to be treated differently”.

Some key problem areas identified by Mr Abbott included attracting more experienced teachers into remote communities and stopping what he described as the “massive” staff turnover in these schools.

“You look at the stats and they tell you that 50 per cent of the teachers in remote Northern Territory schools are in their first or second year out of teachers college,” he said.

“Is it any wonder that we’re not getting great results?”

Mr Abbott told The Australian he would evaluate a number of programs. These included the remote schools attendance strategy, which he introduced in 2013, and the school enrolment and attendance measure put in place by the Gillard government. “I’d be disappointed if I couldn’t have a statement to parliament ready to go before the end of the year, which would give us the early part of next year to work with stakeholders to see how much of it can be implemented,” Mr Abbott said.

Mr Abbott said he would be working with key indigenous thinkers, including Warren Mundine, Noel Pearson, Ian Trust, Alison Anderson and Bess Price.