Homeland learning system ‘next to useless’, says Mundine

REMOTE education centres on indigenous land should be abolished in favour of better resourced schools, says Warren Mundine.

REMOTE education centres on indigenous land in the Northern Territory should be abolished in favour of better resourced primary schools, and every indigenous school in the country should be audited immediately, the federal government’s chief indigenous adviser says.

Warren Mundine said the time was coming when Australia would learn “how brave” the federal Coalition was at enacting its planned indigenous advancement strategy which, he believed, would make remote communities more viable.

Speaking at the Centre for Independent Studies in Sydney yesterday, he criticised apologists who used indigenous culture as an excuse for children missing school, welfare dependence and “idleness”.

“There should be comprehensive audits of indigenous schools for finance, equipment, staff, resources.

“We will find most schools are not fit for purpose.We will find a lot of failed programs and wasted money. We need to draw a line in the sand and move on.”

Mr Mundine said Territory homeland learning centres were run “on a day-to-day basis” by unqualified teachers and were next to useless.

“Homeland learning centres create the illusion children are being educated when they are not,” he said.

“One primary school should service a designated number of students within communities, the schools should collect the students and return them every day

“Redirect the money you save from closing homeland learning centres to transportation for students. This creates jobs.

“Standards for teachers should be higher than for regular schools.”

Mr Mundine said teachers must be willing to become part of the community.

“There could be scholarships, waiving or reducing tertiary fees for people who commit to four years in an indigenous school and who achieved a distinction average in their coursework,” he said.

He conceded welfare quarantining was a “blunt instrument” but had a role to play in helping curb problems in remote communities — but only if it was applied to everyone.

“What’s good enough for the indigenous family is good enough for the non-indigenous family. It’s blatant racism to apply this only to indigenous families who are not sending their kids to school.”