Media Release
INDIGENOUS EDUCATION TO FOCUS ON IMPROVING OUTCOMES AND PERFORMANCE
7 December 2005 MIN 1022/04
The Howard Government has moved to strengthen its educational programmes for the benefit of Indigenous Australians, with the passing today of the Indigenous Education (Targeted Assistance) Amendment Bill.
The Government will provide $2.1 billion in funding for Indigenous education for 2005-2008, an increase of $381.5 million - or 22.3% - over the current four year period.
These programmes have been significantly restructured in order to redirect funding to initiatives that have been demonstrated to work; to direct a greater weighting of resources to students in remote areas; and to leverage mainstream funding for Indigenous education purposes.
The legislation passed today also implements key election promises and provides a strengthened performance standard to ensure that we are making real progress in addressing educational disadvantage.
Government funding is supplementary to other mainstream funds and is intended for strategic interventions to improve the standard of Indigenous education.
Strengthened Initiatives
Direct Assistance Programs
The Indigenous Education Direct Assistance Programme (IEDA) provides targeted assistance directly to Indigenous students, school-based Indigenous parent committees and education institutions to improve outcomes. Total funding for IEDA for 2005-2008 will be $280.9 million, an increase of $20.7 million - or 8% - over the previous four-year funding period.
The newly reshaped IEDA programme will consist of two core elements:
Better Targeted Tuition Assistance: The Government will provide $179 million over the next four years to ensure that Indigenous students can access high quality tutorial assistance at key stages of their education. This includes:
- $105.5 million for in-class tutorial assistance targeted to those students not meeting the Year 3, 5 and 7 literacy and numeracy national benchmarks. It is estimated that more than 45,000 students will benefit from the additional assistance over 2005-2008.
- $41.9 million to provide tutorial assistance targeted at Year 10, 11 and 12 students in order to increase retention and completion rates of Indigenous students in the latter years of schooling. Approximately 11,600 students will receive individual or group assistance over 2005-2008.
- The continuation of tutorial assistance for tertiary students through bulk-funding arrangements with institutions, with flexibility for the delivery of tutorial assistance to students from remote locations ($31.5 million targeting more than 4,000 students over 2005-2008).
Whole of School Intervention Strategy: The Government will provide $102 million for a Whole of School Intervention Strategy to improve learning outcomes for Indigenous students over the next four years, 2005-2008. The Whole of School Strategy comprises two main elements:
- $62.5 million for submission-based funding for projects to promote parent and school partnerships. The Parent School Partnerships initiative will replace the current formula-based funding of Aboriginal Student Support and Parent Awareness (ASSPA) committees from 2005 with a heightened focus on improving the learning outcomes of Indigenous students. Initiatives which can demonstrate strong partnerships with schools and Indigenous communities, provide innovative approaches to engaging students, and improve student learning outcomes will be encouraged. To ensure a focus on the students facing greatest need, at least 50% of this funding will be targeted to remote schools.
- $37.8 million for the continuation of the funding for homework centres in communities that face a very difficult learning environment. In some communities, Indigenous students do not have an appropriate place to study effectively after class. Homework centres seek to address this.
Supplementary Recurrent Assistance and Strategic Initiatives
Under the Indigenous Education Strategic Initiatives Programme (IESIP) the Government will provide $641.6 million for 2005-2008, an increase of 16%, including $45 million in additional new funding. This funding provides for the continuation of per-capita supplementary recurrent assistance paid to education and training providers for Indigenous students, and for ongoing and new strategic projects to further accelerate the educational outcomes of Indigenous Australians.
Supplementary Recurrent Assistance: Supplementary funding for Indigenous education will continue to be provided to government and non-government education providers across the preschool, school and vocational education and training sectors. In 2005-2008 $513.5 million will be provided.
Funding is provided on a per-capita basis. Students classified as being in remote regions attract funding at twice the rate of students classified as being in non-remote locations. The current definition for determining remote status will continue into the next quadrennium. However, as foreshadowed in the current IESIP guidelines, the remoteness boundaries will be updated based on the 2001 Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) Census. Consistent with the Government’s principle of not reducing funding to schools, those education and training providers currently classified as remote, who will be re-classified as non-remote in 2005, will have their IESIP recurrent per-capita funding entitlement for Indigenous students guaranteed at their 2004 remote rates.
The Government is committed to improving mainstream service provision for Indigenous Australians in metropolitan areas, thus enabling Indigenous-specific funding to be better targeted to those at greatest disadvantage. Consistent with this approach, per-capita supplementary recurrent assistance rates for Indigenous students attending schools or vocational education and training in state capital cities and Canberra will be frozen at 2004 levels.
Strategic Initiatives: Over the next four years, the Government will continue to fund significant national initiatives and special projects with an emphasis on Indigenous students in remote areas and $128.1 million will be provided for this purpose. Initiatives will be directed towards promoting systemic change and developing flexible, whole-of-government approaches to education delivery - for example through the Council of Australian Government trials.
One of the new flagship projects that will be funded is the Scaffolding approach to teaching literacy. This is a structured approach to teaching that has proven to be especially effective with Indigenous students in remote areas. The approach has frequently demonstrated impressive improvements in learning outcomes for Indigenous students. The Government will provide $14 million over 2005-2008, and partner with education providers to embed the Scaffolding literacy approach.
ABSTUDY
The Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander study assistance scheme (ABSTUDY) helps Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people to stay at school and go on to further studies. ABSTUDY comprises a means-tested Living Allowance and supplementary benefits for eligible students studying accredited courses at the secondary and tertiary levels. The ABSTUDY arrangements in the next quadrennium will continue under the current structure. Total funding for ABSTUDY for 2005-2008 will be $905.3 million, an increase of $207.3 million or 29.6% over funding for 2001-2004.
Implementation of Key Election Commitments
The legislation implements two key election commitments:
- $11 million over four years for the Indigenous Youth Leadership Programme that will provide 250 boarding school and university scholarships and structured study tours for Indigenous students from remote areas.
- $19.5 million for a new Indigenous Youth Mobility Programme. The programme will assist young Indigenous people who, with the support of their communities, choose to relocate to capital cities or major provincial centres to take up employment and training opportunities.
New performance measures tied to funding
An important part of the Government’s package is a strengthened performance framework. Specifically, the legislation requires:
- providers will report on how they have advanced or intend to advance the objects of the Act;
- reporting, for the first time, on outcomes at the remote, rural/provincial and metropolitan levels, rather than just at aggregate State level data which often masks large regional variations;
- the agreement to performance indicators and targets to accelerate the rate of progress in improving Indigenous education outcomes and attendance; and
- no cost-shifting or cost substitution when the Government invests additional resources.
The legislation also allows appropriate interventions for under-performance by providers against agreed measures and for failure to report.
Since 1996, Year 12 retention has increased from 29% to 39% and Years 3 and 5 literacy and numeracy results are the best ever across five of the six national benchmarks. Indigenous enrolments in vocational education and training have increased 85% to 59,763 and there has been a 37% increase in Indigenous students undertaking a Bachelor or higher degree.
The Government is committed to increasing the educational opportunities and outcomes for all Australians. This initiative for Indigenous Australians is specifically targeted towards accelerating progress in Indigenous education and training outcomes.
These measures represent a significant move toward targeting Indigenous-specific and mainstream resources to the most disadvantaged Indigenous students, with the objective of closing the educational divide between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians.
These measures will have effect from 1 January 2005.
Media Contacts:
Dr Nelson’s Office: Yaron Finkelstein 0414 927 663
Dept of Education, Science & Training: Laila Lacis 0412 040 034
|
