Commitments to action

Ministers of Education

All State and Territory Governments and the Australian Government work at a national level through the Ministerial Council on Education, Employment, Training and Youth Affairs (otherwise known as MCEETYA). MCEETYA recognises that Australia’s Indigenous people are ‘the most educationally disadvantaged group in the community’ and has undertaken a number of collaborative activities, particularly in the last decade, to address the educational needs of Australia’s Indigenous people. These activities include implementing the National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Education Policy (1989).

At its meeting in March 2000, MCEETYA considered the Report of its Taskforce on Indigenous Education. The Taskforce identified a number of issues that are impeding the achievement of educational equality.

• There are lingering perceptions in some quarters of the Australian community that the gap in educational outcomes between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australian students is ‘normal’ and that educational equality for Indigenous Australians is either not achievable, or if possible, only achievable over a long period of time (i.e. decades or generations).
• There is often a systemic lack of optimism and belief in educational success for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students.
• Education of Indigenous students is often not regarded as an area of core business in education systems.
• Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander teachers and education workers are often denied access to facilities and services that other teachers and education workers take for granted and which are ensured by legislation.
• Initiatives that develop more effective models of education which build on, replicate and sustain progress in the achievement of equitable educational outcomes for Indigenous students often fail to be implemented systemically and/or at the local level.
• While there is a widespread acknowledgment of a close relationship between low levels of Indigenous educational outcomes and poverty, health, housing and access to government services and infrastructure, mechanisms to address cross-portfolio issues for Indigenous students are lacking.

Read the whole report...

In March 2000, MCEETYA agreed to undertake a third phase of work to accelerate progress on these issues. This work includes the promotion and implementation of:

• a statement of principles and standards for educational infrastructure and service delivery

• a model for more culturally inclusive and educationally effective schools

Read the model...

• a framework for developing more efficient and effective cross-portfolio mechanisms.

The statement and the model, together with the MCEETYA Taskforce report and discussion paper, have been published and circulated.

At the May 2005 meeting of MCEETYA, a one-day forum was conducted specifically to look at strategies for improving educational outcomes for Indigenous students. The Ministers agreed to make improving the outcomes for Indigenous students the top priority for MCEETYA for the 2005-2008 quadrennium.

MCEETYA will establish a working party of senior officials, chaired by Western Australia, to develop mechanisms of closer collaboration, improved funding arrangements and effective programs to improve the outcomes for Indigenous students. The working party will consult with Indigenous communities and will consider early intervention programs, retention strategies, mentoring, teacher preparation strategies and local Indigenous community involvement.

Australian Government

Australian Government Whole-of-Government Approach (2005)

The Council of Australian Governments (COAG) has agreed to a ‘National Framework of Principles for Government Service Delivery to Indigenous Australians’, recognising the need for services to take account of local circumstances and to be informed by consultations and negotiation with local representatives. The principles address:

• sharing responsibility
• harnessing the mainstream
• streamlining service delivery
• establishing transparency and accountability
• developing a learning framework, and
• focusing on priority areas.

COAG committed to Indigenous participation at all levels and a willingness to engage with representatives, adopting flexible approaches and providing adequate resources to support capacity at the local and regional levels.

Since 2003, the Australian Government has been working co-operatively with State and Territory governments and Indigenous communities, in a number of sites around Australia, to trial whole of government approaches to improving service delivery to Indigenous people.

The Department of Education, Science and Training (Australian Government) and the New South Wales Department of Education and Training (NSW Government) are the lead agencies for the trial being undertaken in the Murdi Paaki region in the far west of the NSW. These agencies in partnership with the new Murdi Paaki Regional assembly have been working to assist Indigenous people of the region to build governance skills, identify priorities through community planning, and implement shared responsibility agreements to take communities' priorities forward.

The other COAG trial sites and their Australian Government lead agency include:

· Wadeye, Northern Territory (Department of Family and Community Services)
· Cape York, Queensland (Department of Employment and Workplace Relations)
· Anangu Pitjantjatjara Lands, South Australia (Department of Health and Ageing)
· Shepparton, Victoria (Department of Employment and Workplace Relations)
· East Kimberley, Western Australia (Department of Transport and Regional Services)
· Australian Capital Territory (Department of Environment and Heritage), and,
· Northern Tasmania (Department of Immigration and Multicultural and Indigenous Affairs).

Australian Government Indigenous Education Policy 2005-2008

On 5 April 2004, the Australian Government announced funding of $2.1 billion for Indigenous Education for 2005-2008, an increase of 20.5% over the previous quadrennium. Existing programmes have been reshaped to direct resources to initiatives that have demonstrably improved outcomes, to give greater weighting of resources towards Indigenous students of greatest disadvantage - those in remote areas, and to improve access to mainstream services, especially for those students in metropolitan areas. An important part of the new funding package is a strengthened performance framework, including the introduction of school attendance benchmarks.

Indigenous-specific funding provided by the Australian Government is supplementary to other mainstream funds and is intended for strategic interventions to accelerate Indigenous students’ learning outcomes.

Indigenous Education Strategic Initiative Programme (IESIP)

The Australian Government is providing $680.1 million over 2005-2008 under this programme.

IESIP Strategic Results Areas

Over $519.9 million is being provided to continue supplementary recurrent assistance to education providers for Indigenous students. Supplementary funding will continue to be paid on a per capita basis for Indigenous students in government and non-government education providers across the preschool, school and vocational education and training sectors in remote and non-remote areas.

IESIP Strategic Initiatives

$129.7 million will be provided for ongoing and new strategic initiatives and special projects to support and improve the educational outcomes of Indigenous students, particularly Indigenous students in remote areas. The major initiatives for 2005-2008 include:

• Dare to Lead — Making a Difference
• the What Works project
• the Yachad Accelerated Learning Project, and
• the National Accelerated Literacy Project, supporting scaffolding literacy in
  the Northern Territory, the Aboriginal Independent Community Schools of Western Australia, the Catholic Education schools of Tjurabalan, Western Australia, and Shalom Christian College, Queensland.

Indigenous Education Direct Assistance (IEDA) Programme

This programme is the major direct assistance programme that provides targeted funds directly to Indigenous students, to schools and to parent school partnerships and education institutions to improve education outcomes. Total funding for IEDA for 2005-2008 will be $289.5million, an increase of $31.07 million, or 12%, over funding for 2001-2004.

IEDA has been significantly reshaped for 2005-2008 to accelerate improved outcomes for Indigenous students based on evidence of what works. Tuition assistance for Indigenous students is better targeted and whole of school approaches have been introduced from 2005. It provides the following.

• In-class tuition to more than 45,000 students. It is targeted at Indigenous students who do not meet Year 3, 5 and 7 national literacy or numeracy benchmarks but schools have some flexibility in the use of funds for tutoring Indigenous students between Years 1 and 9 not meeting the relevant literacy and numeracy curriculum outcomes levels for their age.
  
• Intensive tutorial support in the first year for students who must leave their remote community to attend school (a new policy proposal to commence in 2006).
  
• Tuition for Indigenous students in Years 10, 11 and 12 to improve retention rates and Year 12 outcomes is mostly delivered after school.
  
• Tuition for tertiary students through bulk funding arrangements with tertiary institutions to help improve Indigenous outcomes.
  
• Support for whole-of-school intervention strategies including Parent School Partnerships Initiatives which encourage Indigenous parents and communities to work with schools to tackle entrenched localised problems. The aim is to improve attendance, literacy and numeracy outcomes, retention and Year 12 completion rates.
  
• Continuation of homework centres to encourage Indigenous students to complete their homework and develop independent study skills.

Leaders of Principals’ Associations

In June 2000, at a conference conducted by the Australian Principals’ Associations Professional Development Council (APAPDC), the four peak Australian Principals Associations made a series of commitments to generate and support efforts to improve educational outcomes for Indigenous students. These commitments have recently been reaffirmed if the following terms.

The ‘taking it on’ phase of the Dare to Lead initiative has now been completed with nearly double the anticipated number of schools and organizations signing up for this most laudable effort. Now comes the ‘making the difference’ phase, the time when schools put into place programs that will improve the life success options of Indigenous students across Australia. The State and Territory school leader professional associations will play the vital role in coordinating the resources provided by the DEST through APAPDC which are aimed at assisting schools to utilise the resources being provided to teachers in performing their professional duties. There is perhaps no greater challenge facing Australian educators today than that of improving Indigenous outcomes across the nation, but it is a challenge that we, as Australians for Australians, must overcome. We have agreed to ‘take it on’. Now it is time to ‘make the difference’.

— Ted Brierley
Chair APAPDC; President, Australian Secondary Principals Association

The Australian Primary Principals Association (APPA) is delighted that DEST has committed funding for Stage 3 of the Dare to Lead project. The fact that the sign up figure during Stage 2 has far exceeded expectations speaks volumes about everyone’s commitment and passion to improve the learning outcomes of our Indigenous students.

Signing an agreement though is the easy part and only the beginning of the journey. Making a genuine difference is the hard part and it is only by all of us working together that we will achieve this.

APPA pledges its total commitment to the Dare to Lead project stage 3. We accept the challenge to ‘make the difference’.

— Leonie Trimper
President, Australian Primary Principals Association

Making a difference is what actually matters! Results are what we are judged by! The resources of DEST, the coordination, leadership and professional development of APAPDC and the willingness and work of those in schools is required for this great challenge. Galvanising local communities into action with quality leadership will lead to results. Let’s make the difference!

— Malcolm Lamb
President, Association of Heads of Independent Schools of Australia

The APCSSA remains fully committed to supporting the Dare to Lead initiative. Many Catholic schools around Australia have been established to meet the needs of communities with large numbers of Indigenous students. Not surprisingly, a significant number of Catholic schools have also joined the Dare to Lead coalition – a trend replicated across a variety of states and territories and across different education sectors. APCSSA continues to acknowledge the need to improve educational outcomes for Indigenous students. To do so is in keeping with principles of justice, equity and reconciliation. I commend the work done by all involved in the initial phases of Dare to lead. For many of us in school leadership the vital first step has been to ‘take it on’ and to join the coalition. The very real challenge remaining for us all is to ‘make the difference’ for our students as we continue to support the Dare to Lead project.

— John Aldous
Chairperson, Association of Principals of Catholic Secondary Schools of Australia