Hi there, I’m Sarah Henderson, the Federal Shadow Minister for Education.
I acknowledge the traditional owners of the land and pay my respects to elders, past, present, and emerging.
I also acknowledge this very significant collaboration between ANU and CDU – and in particular the eminent contributions of Professor John List, Professor Dana Suskind, Pro-Vice Chancellor Professor Ruth Wallace.
Thank you for your invitation to say a few words – I am so sorry I can’t be with you in person today.
In education, there is perhaps no greater challenge than ensuring that every young Australian – no matter their background, or post code or socio-economic circumstances, is given the opportunity to reach his or her best potential.
So can I start by saying thank you.
Thank you for caring about the education of young indigenous Australians.
Thank you for your important work to better understand the challenges and the opportunities – and what we can and must do as a nation to ensure that no child falls through the cracks.
Commonwealth education policy is only as good as the research and the findings which underpin those policy decisions. Poorly-informed investments in our early childcare and school sectors can lead to disastrous outcomes.
So state and federal governments – and those aspiring to be in government – have a very important responsibility to follow the evidence – invest in what works, and discard what doesn’t.
It is the compelling depth of evidence on the effectiveness of explicit teaching which has underpinned the Coalition’s commitment to the mandating of evidence-based teaching in every Australian classroom.
We are slowly starting to see different models of explicit teaching being adopted in various states and territories.
Just last week the Victorian Government announced it would put explicit teaching in every classroom including the best practice teaching of phonics in the early years. While this has taken far too long, this is a big step forward.
But the best evidence based teaching practices will not make a difference when children are not attending school or are too hungry or sick or traumatised to learn.
We don’t need to dwell on the enormity of the challenge in the Territory – the failings of our education system are on full display.
School attendance in the Territory has fallen to a ten year low of 77 per cent, with Indigenous student attendance at a dire 59 per cent and as low as 20 per cent in some remote areas.
With more children not in school than ever before, it is no wonder youth crime is on the rise.
NAPLAN results for the Northern Territory are the worst in Australia with 35 per cent of students falling into the lowest band of ‘needs additional support’ – compared to the national average of under 10 per cent – and only 6.5 per cent of students in the top band.
For Indigenous students living in remote communities, many areas are lucky to have access to a teacher once or twice a week which is a national embarrassment.
While the Commonwealth government has announced more funding to top up the serious funding failures of the Territory Labor government, what is critical is ensuring this money is invested in the reforms needed to deliver better educational outcomes for Territory children.
The government must deliver a plan to get back to basics including by mandating explicit teaching in every Territory school. This means addressing the high levels of truancy and lack of parental accountability which has resulted in so many Indigenous children failing to go to school.
To make matters worse, more than half of education funding for Northern Territory schools is syphoned into bureaucracy and administration, rather than the classroom which has contributed to very poor educational outcomes.
Organisations like the Clontarf Foundation and the Australian Indigenous Education Foundation are doing some incredible work – helping to realise the dreams of hundreds of young indigenous men and women.
We need to see those dreams realised in every Australian classroom.
So, with less than 12 months until the next federal election, I am looking forward to learning about the outcomes of your conference and your continuing work to ensure that young indigenous Australians will be part of a better world – for them and the generations to follow.
Thank you.