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Transcript
Indigenous Education and Training Quadrennium Funding Announcement
Sydney, 5 April 2004 MIN 670/04
Brendan Nelson:
On behalf of the Government today I’m announcing that over the next four years $2.1 billion of Commonwealth funding will be invested in the education of the most disadvantaged people in this country, and that’s Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders. This represents $351 million increase over the current four years of spending. That’s a 20% increase in funding. There are a number of key initiatives that we’re undertaking today. The first is that we will be increasing our focus on successful trials we’ve undertaken in the last two years, and that is to provide in school tuition for Indigenous students. This means that for those student who aren’t able to pass basic reading and writing and numeracy benchmarks in Years 3, 5 and 7, the Government will be funding, at a cost of $105 million, in class tutors to help Indigenous students with their basic reading and writing and numeracy skills. Further to that, the students in Years 10, 11 and 12, some 11,500 of those students will benefit from tuition which will help them to remain in school, to understand the importance of their education and to make successful transitions from school in Year 10, 11 or 12, not just into jobs and into training, but perhaps also into higher education.
The Government will also be requiring the States and non Government school providers, for the very first time, to set specific benchmarks for Aboriginal education. We want to make sure that the outcomes are not only being measured but we are monitoring progress in this area. Today, I think, all education authorities should be ashamed, in the sense that they are not able to tell us the difference between metropolitan Aboriginal education, regional and rural education, and the progress being made by students in remote areas. The Government will also be requiring Government and non Government school authorities to specifically report upon and monitor and improve school attendance for Indigenous students and I’ll also be requiring the States to provide an annual Indigenous Education Statement, to set out specific expenditures that are being made for Aboriginal students. We also want to see what performance benchmarks have been set, what achievement has been made against those benchmarks and specifically for States to account for their considerable investment that the Government is making and should be making in Aboriginal education.
There are a number of initiatives in this package which represent a significant reform in this area. Our fundamental priority is to see that we shift the considerable investment by Australians, through the Australian Government, toward those Indigenous students whose needs, by any standard, are the greatest in this country – and they are Indigenous students in remote parts of Australia. There are more than 50,000 Indigenous students that are being educated in remote parts of Australia. Only 13% can pass basic national benchmark tests in reading and writing and numeracy. We know across Australia that only 1 in 4 Indigenous students can pass a basic Year 3 reading test and only 1 in 3 by Year 5. If Aboriginal education was considered to be a fire it’s obvious that we need to redirect more of our resources to remote Aboriginal education and that’s unashamedly what the Government is determined to do with this package.
Journalist:
Minister, that’s obviously the problem you have isn’t it, the Federal Government, you’re shelling out the dollars to the States and you don’t see that you a getting value for money out of what you’re putting in?
Brendan Nelson:
Well I think all Australians, and I think all political parties, are very committed to addressing Aboriginal disadvantage, and in particular in remote parts of Australia. One of the constant frustrations of our Government is that the more we seem to invest in Aboriginal education the more clever the State Governments become in withholding or redirecting that resource into other things, and in particular State bureaucracy. It is extremely important that all Governments and non Government school providers set specific benchmarks, set specific targets for Aboriginal education and we make sure that every last dollar, which has been hard earned by the average taxpayer, is invested in seeing we deliver good outcomes for all Australian children, and Indigenous students in particular. For that reason especially we will have specific agreements with each of the eight State and Territory Governments, we will make sure that those Territory and State Governments not only have set benchmarks for achievement in Aboriginal education but they are being monitored and they are being delivered upon, because we will do a great disservice to Australia and to Aboriginal Australians in particular, if we don’t start to deliver the outcomes which by any standard education requires of these children.
Journalist:
Minister, you say $2.1 billion is the current resources that have been shifted, or is it a new budget allocation?
Brendan Nelson:
This is a new budget allocation over the next four years. The Government has budgeted for every dollar of this. We are determined to make sure that real progress is made in education. We have, over the last eight years, been able to lift Year 12 retention rates for Indigenous students from 29 to 38%. We’ve gone from national benchmark reading outcomes, for example, of some 4% in remote communities to 13%, but by any standard, and particularly compared to non Indigenous Australians, we have a long way to go. What we’ve done is we’ve specifically examined the programmes we have been funding over the last four years, we’re focusing on things that work, and the Government will be committing this $2.1 billion not just and only to Indigenous students and especially those in remote parts of Australia, but to programmes that we’ve actually now documented have worked.
One of the key things we’ll be doing, apart from in school tuition for Indigenous students that aren’t meeting benchmark standards in reading and writing and numeracy, and tuition for students in Year 10, 11 and 12 that need help remaining in school and making transition, one of the key initiatives is to introduce the Scaffolding reading programme, right throughout Australia, but especially in the Northern Territory. We’ll be working with 100 schools, we’ll be training 700 teachers and to the benefit of 10,000 Indigenous students in the Northern Territory, outside of Alice Springs and Darwin, to significantly improve their reading outcomes.
Journalist:
Can you explain what the Scaffolding is?
Brendan Nelson:
The Scaffolding programme is a whole of student, whole of school approach to reading. What it does is that it carefully looks at all of the issues which are preventing young Indigenous students from learning how to read and communicate effectively. It provides a specific training programme for teachers and it enmeshes reading skills and literacy in every aspect of school life. For example, when we trialled this we found that only 4% of Indigenous students in Years 1 to 3 could read independently at the Year 1 level before starting the trial. By the end of the trial more than 60% could read independently at the minimum Year 1 level. The Australian Council for Educational Research, which evaluated this project, said that the results have been nothing less than sensational. So what we’re now determined to do is to increase public investment in these and other programmes that we know actually work.
Journalist:
You said that, talking about equality and disadvantage, with the changes that have happened to higher education and the changes that you (inaudible) being Education Minister, a system where two students both miss out on a HECs place, by 3 marks for example, one of the students can afford to pay full fees and the other can’t, that’s a classic case (inaudible) message (inaudible).
Brendan Nelson:
And that is specifically why we sought to address it, because there will always be more students who want to do some courses than the Australian Government will ever be able to fund. There will always be more people wanting to study to be lawyers or dentists or doctors or veterinary scientists, than perhaps the number of HECs places that will be funded. So at the same time as increasing the number of HECs places that are available for Australian students the Government has said well for those students who might miss out by 1 or 2 points on a HECs place, if they want to and they are offered a full fee paying place by the University, just like students from overseas, for the very first time a loan scheme is available, which is like HECs in the sense you don’t have to pay it back until you are earning at least $36,000 a year, with less than a 2% real interest rate. One of the things that I think has been an anomaly and an unfair anomaly in the system, up until now, has been that the student who come from relatively well off backgrounds have been able to afford to take up the choice of a fee paying place but poorer students haven’t. And that’s why we’ve introduced Fee Help, which is the income contingent payback system, so that if students want to take up a loan it will be available to them, and they don’t have to pay it back until they’ve graduated and are working.
Journalist:
Minister, you’ve labelled some of the Governments as clever in squirreling away the money. Give us an example, what are they doing to make sure it’s not getting to where it should be?
Brendan Nelson:
For example, when I first came into this portfolio just over two years ago, I discovered that in the Northern Territory, under successive Governments, that not all of the resources that have been specifically commited to the education of Aboriginal students have actually found their way into the classroom. Too often the resources have been used to open desks in bureaucracies rather than desks in classrooms, particularly in remote parts of the Territory and the same argument can apply to any State Government throughout Australia. What we want to do is we want to make sure that we focus the resources that we have for the education of Aboriginal children in the areas where the need is greatest and our progress as a country in education will be determined by the extent to which we are able to lift those students who have the poorest educational outcomes.
We have a question here, it was a perfectly legitimate question about students that are getting access into university into high demand courses and the availability of financial assistance for those students. But there are many Aboriginal Australians who would simply wish they had those problems. We are talking, here today, about Aboriginal children, where 90% are not completing Year 12 in remote parts of Australia, where in remote parts of Australia only 13% can pass a basic Year 3 or Year 5 reading test and what the Government is determined to do is to progress, if you like practical reconciliation and ensuring that all Australians, wherever they live or whatever their circumstances get some assistance with their education and a degree of assistance which is commensurate with their need. All of the 206,000 Indigenous students in Australia, in pre schools, in schools, in new apprenticeships, in training and in universities, the $2.1 billion which we’re going to commit over the next four years will obviously supplement and be added to all of the resources that go to educate all Australian children irrespective of their probable background.
Journalist:
Only an issue of funding though, I mean there’s been some development in Indigenous education or achievement, are there any other issues at hand - apart from funding?
Brendan Nelson:
Well I think there are many issues that are affecting the educational outcomes for Indigenous students. When you have truancy rates approaching 75% in East Arnhem Land for example, it is difficult to imagine those children will be able to find let alone achieve their full potential. We also have endemic in many parts of Aboriginal Australia disfunctioning families and children that are growing up in households where alcohol abuse, endemic unemployment, and things that are not conducive to good educational outcomes are affecting the education of those children. The programmes which we are intending to fund over the next four years address, not just the relatively simple issue of ongoing training of teachers and getting teachers into classrooms with Indigenous students, we’re also seeking to address school attendance, the whole question of the social environment in which children are actually living, to recognise that improving education means lifting whole communities, and not just providing resources into schools.
And I think our greatest challenge is, for all of us as Australians, and those of us who profess to lead, we need to ensure that our determination in this area in improving the educational outcomes for Indigenous students is considered to be as high a priority as the cutting edge research and innovation which we do out of our research intensive universities. It is too often that Indigenous Australians, particularly those that are out of sight of the Opera House and the Melbourne Convention Centre become the focus of our, not just our funding, but our political will in education. And that’s what this package is about.
Journalist:
So, of the 20% increase, what percentage of programmes that are adopting most of that increase, (inaudible) is it like tuition or, if you could just briefly outline which are the main benefactors.
Brendan Nelson:
The main priorities will be in school tuition for students that are not meeting reading and writing benchmarks, in school tuition and specific support for Indigenous students in Year 10 and beyond, to help keep them in school and make a successful transition into work or other training. We also want to focus the level of funding which is being provided to support teachers and families in school communities in remote parts of Australia, and more than half of the specific new initiatives will be unashamedly focused on remote parts of Australia. It’s important for all of us, and every Aboriginal person in Australia, doesn’t matter where you’re born or where you live, finds life more challenging than those of us who are not Indigenous. But for Indigenous students that are growing up in capital cities, we have sealed roads, you can turn on a tap and get clean fresh water, we have hospitals, we have schools, we have a whole range of services that are being provided, yet for Indigenous students living and trying to be educated in remote parts of the country, they can only dream of having such facilities and resources. And that’s why we want to turn the fire hose to where the need is greatest and we’re going to concentrate our effort, not only on Indigenous students wherever they are, but specifically on those in remote parts of Australia.
Journalist:
What structures will you do to ensure that you don’t get a repeat of say, Redfern, where it’s had the resources and it’s had all the instructions you’ve talked about and yet look at what happened there, what are some of the initiatives that you can do to ensure that (inaudible)?
Brendan Nelson:
Well for example in looking at specific project funding to support parents and families in school education, we are now focusing specifically on the extent to which those resources are going to lift attendance, educational outcomes, and meaningfully involve, not just individual parents but whole families and communities and schools in the education of those children.
The circumstances which led to the riots in Redfern I don’t think anybody has ever attributed to the level of resourcing which is currently being provided to support specific Indigenous education in the Redfern area and broader communities. There are a lot of other issues that, I understand, contributed to those riots. But especially we want to make sure that we have specific professional ongoing training and development for teachers who work with Indigenous students. We want to concentrate on the students whose needs are greatest, who’ve got to Year 8 or 9 and can barely read. We also want to concentrate on holistic measures which go beyond the classroom which we’ve proven now to be successful, and we also want to make sure that every State and Territory Government in this country is signed up to specific outcomes, that every last dollar that’s intended for Aboriginal education ends up where it’s supposed to go, and if these States and Territory Governments are not prepared to play ball with this, they will suffer a financial penalty but not in the area of Aboriginal education, because only the children will suffer from that.
Journalist:
Lastly Minister, what position do (inaudible) now on, ATSIC and ATSIS?
Brendan Nelson:
Well, look I’ve had the privilege to be Australia’s Minister for Education, Science and Training for almost two and a half years, I have only ever heard from ATSIC once in relation to Aboriginal education. That’s not to suggest that it doesn’t have a particular interest in this area but as far as we’re concerned I’m in the business of getting on with addressing significant unmet need in Indigenous education and I think, as Bob Collins remarked the other day, the ship has gone down with the Captain as far as ATSIC is concerned. Indigenous Australians and their children in particular can’t wait any longer for the hand wringing and crippling behaviour which has seemed to have gripped ATSIC, we want to get on with the job.
Journalist:
What’s your tip for an election date?
Brendan Nelson:
I don’t have any tip. Just one other issue in case it comes up. The Labor Party and its deputy leader, Jenny Macklin, have accused me of lying and resorted to personal insult in relation to the funding of non-government schools. There are 127 schools educating 123,000 students in non-government schools which have been nominated by the Labor Party by virtue of the Bunbury Cathedral School in Perth on the basis of the fees they charge as being in line for a cut. I am happy to be accused of anything by the Labor Party and Jenny Macklin in particular, but I think of far more importance is that the parents of the 123,000 students in those schools need to be told in simple plain language from the Labor Party that they won’t have their funding cut and I suspect that the reason why the Labor Party has done everything other than all out cutting those schools is because they do intend to cut them and I suspect to cut many more.
Journalist:
I spoke to the Opposition this morning as well about the Aboriginal education issue and the main points (inaudible) that basically it’s a re-packaging of the funding that is already listed, just to create an impression that the Government is doing something. How do you respond to that?
Brendan Nelson:
Well that unfortunately reflects their ignorance of the package and the critics of the package clearly need to read it. You will see that what we are doing is re-directing resources into remote areas of the country to support some 50,000 Indigenous students living in remote Australia. At the same time as we’re increasing substantially the money that is being available, we are de-funding some programmes which we’ve found not to provide good outcomes for Indigenous students. We’re significantly increasing the funding to initiatives and programmes that do in school tuition and the Scaffolding reading/literacy programmes for example, and at the same time we’re setting performance benchmarks for the providers of State and Territory Governments and non-government providers. I think that the needs of Indigenous children are such that politicisation and personal insults probably won’t deliver much at all to Aboriginal children.
Journalist:
Minister can you say which programmes you’re going to defund?
Brendan Nelson:
Well, we’ve got a number of things in the package, for example, in our strategic initiatives, or Indigenous education strategic initiatives programme we’ve funded a range of things over the last four years which we’ve had evaluated that have been found not to deliver the outcomes that they should, for example, the Aboriginal Student Support and Parent Awareness Committees. There are 3,800 of these committees throughout Australia and the review which we conducted of those found that they have delivered quite poor outcomes educationally for Aboriginal students. We’re now significantly increasing the funding in that area but going to a project based arrangement, putting in $62 million and instead of funding bbqs and excursions we’re actually going to fund programmes that involve parents and broader communities that deliver good outcomes for Aboriginal kids. For the critics I just suggest they actually read the detail.
Thank you very much.
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