It is disturbing that some commentators on Aboriginal education in Australia draw the superficial conclusion that, “the school system has failed Aboriginal children very badly”.

There is abundant, undisputed evidence that Aborigines, as a group, consistently score much lower in English reading, writing and arithmetic tests than any other identifiable group in Australia. They leave school at an earlier age and at a lower achievement level than the national average.

As an educator it is not something that I am proud of – and I should say that most other educators would feel much the same way. It is the task of all of us who are involved in the education of Aborigines to do all in our power to rectify the situation. But it is too glib, too shallow by far, to heap all the blame for Aborigines’ low achievement on the schools, the school teacher or the school system.

Do those who make their sweeping condemnations suggest that all teachers, all schools, all the school systems across Australia – both government and non-government, have singly, and collectively failed the Aborigines? Is it claimed that in the 166 years since Governor Macquarie’s first school for Aborigines, successive generations of teachers have failed to ‘crack the code’, so to speak?

If so, isn’t this an incredible state of affairs? Can we really believe it to be true?

Elliott is a small township in the Northern Territory situated on the Stuart Highway 260 kilometres north of Tennant Creek and 415 kilometres south of Katherine. It is on a flat tableland in a generally arid region. The town clusters around a police station, post office and store, clinic, school, supermarket, hotel, roadhouse and three petrol stations. The local church is the Australian Inland Mission.

About 50 non-Aboriginal people live in the town. Most of these are employed by government departments. While some Aboriginal families also live in Elliott, most of the Aboriginal population, which varies from 200–400 people, has settled in one of two villages to the north and south of town.

One hundred children attend the local school; more than 90% of these are of Aboriginal descent. Attendance figures for 1979–1980 indicate that mean attendance rates are 83% and 85% respectively; thus attendance at Elliott Primary School is uncharacteristically high when compared with the rest of the Northern Territory (Shimpo, 1978). Two Aboriginal teaching assistants and five non-Aboriginal staff teach combined classes from pre-school to year 7.

In this setting the Elliott Health Program developed out of the concerted and co-ordinated efforts of the school and local community health centre.

At St Therese’s Girls’ School we have initiated a transition from a post-primary program to a secondary program. Part of this change has been a re-thinking and reorganization of the mathematics program.

There are 40 students in the secondary section. In the past they were taught in three different classes – Grades 8, 9 and 10. One teacher taught each class and the secondary section was organized like a primary school. Now the secondary section is organized along different lines, but it is not the purpose of this paper to explain the organization of the secondary section. The purpose of this paper is to explain the philosophy, approach, and some of the content of the secondary mathematics program.

It would seem that in the past the philosophy behind most post-primary programs prompted teachers to engage their classes in one of two activities. Either the class would spend the bulk of its day engaged in some sort of manual study, or else the teacher would engage the class in studies that were aimed at catching up with the Aboriginal students’ non-Aboriginal counterparts. The philosophy behind both approaches saw the Aboriginal students as inferior.

The philosophy behind both the mathematics program at St Therese’s, and the secondary program in general, is based on what I believe to be a far more truthful reality. I believe that it is not acceptable to infer that Aboriginal students are inferior and to organize their schooling around either manual studies or alternatively academic studies aimed at catching up to their European-Australian counterparts.

At St Therese’s Girls School, we have initiated what we believe to be a more meaningful and more relevant utilization of our resources in producing a secondary program that is more appropriate to the needs of our students.

During 1980, the program was organized in a similar manner to previous years. Each grade – eight, nine and ten – was in the charge of grade teachers. We were fortunate in having a specialist art teacher, but basically the Post Primary section was organized in the typical primary style.

After much consideration, in 1981, we decided to try a different approach. We were prepared to do some experimenting but we were not prepared to upset our students with too much unjustified change. We spent considerable time in consultation with our Tiwi staff members. We wanted to use the resources of both our European-Australian and Tiwi staff members far more effectively. Also we wanted to provide a program that would cater for the needs of our students in a far more meaningful way. We didn’t feel that we were meeting these objectives with our past mode of organization. Previously our two Tiwi teachers were acting in the capacity of mere teacher aides without any real responsibility. We knew that they had far more to offer and that our Tiwi students had far more to gain by their effective participation in the program.

Just occasionally you hear of a really exciting project being undertaken. The Kalkadoon Cultural and Locality Education Group is one such project.

The highly enthusiastic and motivated team has been unearthing and collecting a wealth of information which they are feeding back into both primary and secondary classes around Mount Isa. At present they are working under the limitations of a Schools Commission Special Projects Program grant, with no guarantee of continued funding once the initial grant is spent.

Too often, due to lack of resources and/or interest, Aboriginal studies in Queensland schools is merely a superficial glance at what is a culturally rich, diverse and many faceted society. The booklet Aboriginal Studies in Queensland Schools, developed by the Queensland Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Consultative Committee, and published by the Education Department, is too often gathering dust in some obscure corner of the school both unknown and unused by most of the staff.

Hopefully, the Kalkadoon Cultural and Locality Education Group will receive the kind of support that will enable their project to become an integral and continuing part of the schools in Mount Isa. To provide a better picture of the activities of this group I have reprinted two articles. The first is part of a press release by Sunset State School in the North-West Star, Wednesday, 11th March, 1981.