Aboriginal school closes with one pupil

FOR several weeks this year, a Year 8 boy at the Ballerrt Mooroop College, in Melbourne's north, was the $1.1 million student.

Barbara Williams at the Ballerrt Mooroop College in Glenroy which has been closed down due to the Education department

FOR several weeks this year, a Year 8 boy attending the Ballerrt Mooroop College, in Melbourne's north, was the $1.1 million student.

That was the annual operating budget for the Aboriginal "pathways" school and the boy was the school's only student.

Ballerrt Mooroop has now been de-staffed and its closure may signal the end of Victoria's experiment with Aboriginal schools, which have had low enrolments and poor academic outcomes.

Ballerrt Mooroop began as a Koorie Open Door Education school in 1995. In 1997, the Glenroy school had 86 students. By 2009, there were 28, costing taxpayers $95,000 a student, or nine times the state average. Attendance was 66 per cent.

Last year, there were 11 students, with 64 per cent attendance, being taught by eight teachers. The school had recurrent income of $1.1m.

Forced to share its grounds with a special school for disabled students, Ballerrt Mooroop began this year with two students, which quickly became one. After several weeks, the sole remaining student was removed to another school.

According to Aboriginal activist Barbara Williams, the boy "was happy with the school and when he was told it was closing, he was crying his heart out".

But the Victorian Education Department says Aboriginal people have voted with their feet, enrolling their children in mainstream schools. There are almost 1200 indigenous students in Melbourne's north.

"Since we wound up with one student, we couldn't justify spending $1.1m to keep it going," regional director Wayne Craig told The Australian.

"The community has voted with its feet in a lot of ways. When you wind up with a school with no kids in it, I guess basically the decision is made for you."

Over the past 17 years, Victoria's four Aboriginal campuses, in Mildura, Swan Hill, Morwell and Glenroy, have been tried as Prep-Year 10 (KODE), Prep-Year 12 (Victorian College of Koorie Education) and Year 7-10 (Pathways), with the goal eventually of reconnecting disengaged Aboriginal students with mainstream education, or training.

In 2007, respected Aboriginal educator Chris Sarra reported they had "failed dramatically" to boost Aboriginal education and had become a dumping ground for difficult Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal students.

Last year, the state's Auditor-General, Des Pearson, said the Education Department could not demonstrate whether they were working.

Ms Williams said students had been discouraged from attending the Glenroy school, while fellow activist Gary Murray said Ballerrt Mooroop had been allowed to become a "poor black school that takes in naughty black kids".

Mr Murray, who attended Glenroy High School, said a more creative strategy, aimed at strong academic results and incorporating sports and performing arts academies, could have succeeded.

He said Aboriginal activists would now fight for the Glenroy site. "We can't fight for the kids, because they're not there," he said.

"If the Greeks can have their schools and the Jews can have their schools and the Muslims can have their schools and the rich kids can have their schools and the disabled kids can have theirs, why can't we?" he said.