Aboriginal Education Problem

The reading focuses on two main points regarding Indigenous students school attendance. The first of which calls attention to the fact that Aboriginal students are at the highest risk of regular non-attendance due to a range of cultural, medical and school-based related issues. This is a statement that is supported by numerous journals and articles including, but not limited to; ‘School attendance and retention of Indigenous Australian students’ (Purdie & Buckley, 2010) and ‘Indigenous school attendance: Creating expectations that are ‘really high’ and ‘highly real’.’ (Dreise, Milgate, Perrett, & Meston, 2016). The 2006 Australian census also found an alarming difference in attendance between Indigenous and non-Indigenous students that only grew as the children aged (Australian Bureau of Statistics, 2010).

Residential School’s were introduced back in the 1870’s, they were made to change the way native children spoke their languages and how they viewed their cultures. The residential school system in Canada was operated by the government, where the native children were aggressively forced away from their loved ones to participate in these schools (1000 Conversations). The government had a concept, where they can modernize the native children, aged of three to eighteen and extinguish the aboriginal culture. In the twentieth century the Canadian Public School’s had arrived and had improved treatments than residential schools. In Contrast, the treatments within these schools were both different, whereas Canadian public school students had more freedom than residential school students because children were taken away from their families. However, the treatment in these schools were different and some what similar. Even though Residential schools and Canadian Public schools were similar in some form, there were numerous amounts of differences in how the children were taught, how they were treated and how their living conditions were like throughout these schools.

Indian Residential Schools has been a major contributing factor towards the mistreatment and decreased standard of living for the First Nations people of Canada. Originally founded in the 1840’s and the last to close in 1996 the goal of Residential Schools was to assimilate First Nations people into Canadian society. The assimilation process consisted of the forced attendance (by Canadian law) for every Native, Metis, and Inuit child to attend the “boarding” schools. Residential Schools were ran by Christian, Catholic, and Anglican churches, the schools were also funded by the Canadian government’s Indian Affairs. Treatment students received while attending the schools was unbearable for the young children. After being taken and

60% of aboriginal children are significantly behind non-indigenous Australians by the time they start years one. Only 40% of aboriginal children stay at school through to year twelve. Causes of this include language because English is their second language, inappropriate context; material being taught does not relate to the aboriginals lives. Over crowed house where aboriginal children cannot learn to do homework is a big factor in them being behind in education.

Australian government today recognises that educational policies regarding Aboriginal people cannot be made without considering social and economic policies aimed at improving outcomes for Aboriginal communities in general (TICHR, 2006). Main contemporary issues facing Aboriginal communities are proving land ownership, remoteness, health status, education and employment status and social attitude of Non-Aboriginal population towards the Aboriginal communities (Challenges facing the Indigenous communities today, n.d.). Tackling this issue is not a simple task: the document “National Indigenous Reform Agreement” (2010) which aims to improve outcomes for all Indigenous Australians recognizes that this process needs approach from different aspects, taking into account “seven key building blocks: Early Childhood, Schooling, Health, Economic Participation, Healthy Homes, Safe Communities, and Governance and Leadership” (as cited in DET Queensland,

Residential School (1931-1996) treated aboriginals unfairly and assumed that aboriginal culture is unable to adapt to a rapidly modernizing society. It was said that native children could be successful if they adapt to Christianity and speaking English or French. Native students were not encouraged to speak their own language

Thus Indigenous Australians have are higher rates of unemployment, homelessness, poor school attendance, poor health, family violence and substance abuse than non-Indigenous Australia (Weatherburn, 2014).

Firstly, the aboriginal people do not have enough jobs and educational buildings to support the large population of young people. Almost half the aboriginal people in

Usually, the schools were built in areas where they were far away from the Aboriginal homes, which therefore cut off ties with family and community influences. In these residential schools, children were stripped of their identity of their heritage where they were forbidden to speak their native language and where only English was allowed to be spoken; not allowed to wear their native clothing, this caused children the loss of their belief in their traditions of their native culture due to not being able to put them in practice because they were the “Other” which is considered inferior (rel after 304). The most horrible things of this residential school if the children did speak their native language or did anything native such as rituals they were punished. The Aboriginal children went through a cruel amount of abuses through emotional, physical and sexual which are life threatening to the children, this is considered a scaring and impacted many Aboriginal people with repercussions of the loss of

Education is fundamental to growth, the growth of the individual, and the growth of a nation. Anthropologically this can be seen from the earliest of developments of human societies where practices emerge to ensure the passing of accumulated knowledge from one generation to the next. In the centuries since the invasion and colonisation of Australia in 1788, colonist authorities and governments have dominated the making of policies regarding most major aspects of Australian life, including the lives of Indigenous Australians. The enactment of these policies and legislation, whether targeted at society as a whole or directly at education, has had significant and most often negative causal impact on Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples, resulting in not only poor educational outcomes, but the loss of cultural identity, the development of serious issues in health and wellbeing, and the restriction of growth of Aboriginal communities. Moreover, there has been an ongoing pattern of the adoption of ill-informed policies in Australia, resulting in these poor outcomes and cultural decimation. Aboriginal people have developed a wariness, a mistrust, and even an attitude of avoidance to engage with non-Indigenous officials and those who they associate as their representatives, i.e. personnel working within

Residential School are an aspect of Canadian history that will haunt our nation. Derived from the Anglican Church, Methodist Church, and Roman Catholic church’s desires to educate and convert the indigenous people of the land. (Miller, 2008) The churches thought that the indigenous people were savages and needed to be assimilated into their beliefs. (Hanson, n.d.) 30% of indigenous children were forced into Residential Schools, 6,000 died while in the care of these boarding schools. (Tasker, 2015). These institutions used methods of physical, emotional, and sexual abuse to sterilized these children such as piercing the tongues of children with needles who dare to speak their native language

They face a lot of challenge in local schools. They are the targets of physical and verbal bullying. For the author, he experienced bullying and special treatment on the first day of school. He got into a fight with a white boy because he was making fun of the way they dressed. However when the principal came, he did not question the white boy about the fight but rather asked if he needed to call the police. It was because his father was a wealthy businessman. He would not care to ask how the author was feeling because he was native and poor (Louttit, 2013, p.29). The setting in the school was arranged based on the race rather than ability. All the aboriginals were in one classroom like a melting pot. The school explained that they should support each other to graduate therefore it is good to be in the same room. Ironically, their drop out rate was very high (Louttit, 2013, p.29). Some of the reason include: they do not feel belong to the mainstream culture; unequal treatment by teachers and peers; need a job to “assist their low income families financially”( Lamb, 2012, p.256). In French class, the teacher told the author that he did not like aboriginal people; he could only graduate if he would not go to class (Louttit, 2013, p.30). Thus, aboriginals bond more with other marginalized group, which they feel more belong. From there, they learn

Throughout the last fifty years two diametrically opposed views have played out. H.C. Coombs argued that the priority was to use the curriculum and teaching methods to rebuild and sustain traditional Aboriginal culture destroyed by colonisation, racism and oppression. He supported Moira Kingston’s view that all Aborigines had a “world view derived from the Dreaming and irreconcilable with the demands of a modern industrialised market economy.” Sir Paul Hasluck represented the opposing assimiliationist view that schools should give priority to literacy, numeracy and technical and scientific knowledge to asssist integration in the workforce.Many theorists and practitioners have focused on the one third of students in Aboriginal schools with a specifically Aboriginal education rather than the majority attending the same schools as non-Indigenous children. In either case major problems were indentified with Aboriginal education by 2000.

Colonialism and its power in the educational system positioned Indigenous Australians in a low socioeconomic status perpetuating an intergenerational cycle of disadvantage ultimately resulting in a high Indigenous infant mortality rate. Socio- economic status is an indicator of social class based on income, education and occupation. Education of Indigenous Australians in the early years of colonisation are practically oriented and based around the management of garden and farm. This structural violence in societal institutions only equipped Indigenous students to participate in the lowest levels of the workforce. Although overtime education

Proportionally, more Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander groups live in poverty than any other group in Australia. Indigenous Australians have moderate access to economic and educational resources with a significant high level of social isolation, particularly in rural and remote locations. In Australia over one million people live in chronic deprivation. Indigenous Australians are among the population; they are more likely to experience severe disadvantages in comparison to non-indigenous Australians. In communities, there are clear disparities encompassing indigenous health, education, housing and employment levels. Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people obtain the lowest employment rates in the county. 52.2 per cent of Indigenous Australians between the age of 15 and 64 years were unemployed in 2012-2013, compared with 24.4