I have had a number of people ask me recently about my thoughts after the 4 Corners program on the ABC focused on Bilingual Education in the NT.
I actually missed the program itself but have recently caught up on it on the program's website. It also contains a number of extended interviews which are interesting and links to a number of reports and papers which highly encourage people to read as they give a fuller picture of what is happening.
http://www.abc.net.au/4corners/special_eds/20090914/language/
Some thoughts:
I dont teach in a bilingual school. I have never taught in a official bilingual school.
Most of the remote indigenous schools in the NT are not bilingual.
The decision to introduce mandatory first 4 hours of English at school in the NT was justified as a step to improving National Literacy and Numeracy Benchmarks for NT indigenous students.
Not just students in bilingual schools, but all schools - the majority of which were already teaching in English for the first 4 hours and still not passing benchmark.
The so called 'policy' was in fact a 'Ministerial Directive' as it was not developed by the Department and presented to the Minister as a new, recommended policy. Neither the Minister at the time, nor the current Minister hold any qualification in Education ( the former was trained in book-keeping, accounting, administration and health economics and the latter is trained as a mechanical engineer) and neither are they experts in language acquisition and the role it plays in learning.
I work with a number of indigenous teachers from bilingual schools. The fact that school leaders and Communities were not consulted about this change has left many indigenous teachers feeling undermined, undervalued and disempowered.
No one seems to be willing to have the conversation about whether the problem might be in the testing itself, or in the countless other factors that prevent indigenous students from improving in schooling overall. We have swallowed the completely political line of 'Literacy and numeracy benchmarks' hook, line and sinker and seemed blinded to the fact that these are a tool of political manipulation - a way for politicians to prove that THEY have done something to 'Close the Gap' for Indigenous people.
Research shows that in order to gain deep levels of knowledge - the kind that you need to get into University for example - you need access to your first language.
If we do not respect and embrace first language as a fundamental learning resource for indigenous children then they will be dramatically short changed in their education and no gap will ever be closed.
