Australia has failed to make any significant progress over the past 30 years on improving the education of Aboriginal people, by far the country’s most disadvantaged group, according to a survey released on Friday.
The survey of about 2 500 students in Western Australia state found that Aboriginal students started school at a disadvantage to non-Aboriginal children and the gap only widened during their years in the classroom.
The study by the non-profit Institute for Child Health Research found that almost 60% of Aboriginal children were rated by their teachers as having a low academic performance compared with less than 20% for their non-Aboriginal classmates.
”Aboriginal children performed far worse at school than non-Aboriginal children,” it said.
”No obvious progress has been made over the past 30 years to effectively close the disparity in academic performance.”
The study, which the institute said was the most comprehensive survey ever taken of Aboriginal education, found that absenteeism, emotional and behavioural difficulties and low levels of education for parents and carers contributed to the poorer outcomes for Aboriginal children.
Aborigines are by far Australia’s most disadvantaged group, with a life expectancy about 20 years lower than their non-indigenous counterparts.
While Aborigines make up barely two percent of Australia’s population, they suffer far higher rates of alcoholism, unemployment, imprisonment and domestic abuse.
A report compiled by the charity Oxfam found that the health of Aboriginal Australians lagged far behind that of indigenous people in other developed Commonwealth nations.
The report, released earlier this month, found that 30 years ago, Aborigines, New Zealand Maoris and indigenous Canadians had similar life expectancies.
But today, indigenous health was significantly improved in New Zealand and Canada while indigenous Australians’ life expectancy was on par with inhabitants of Pakistan, Guyana and Bangladesh, according to the report.
Friday’s report said continuing poor health was not enough to explain the failure of Aboriginal education.
”It is clear from the findings of the survey that poor physical health problems and poor nutrition are not the major factors holding back the performance,” it said.
”Until the more deep-seated problems of social and emotional wellbeing and the ongoing consequences of past policies of exclusion from school-based education are addressed, the prospects for major improvements in academic performance are limited.”
The study’s lead investigator, Professor Steve Zubrick, said the findings showed an urgent need for an overhaul of Aboriginal education, particularly in the early years.
”Many of the programmes to support Aboriginal children start in late primary or high school by which time the gap in performance between Aboriginal children and others is simply too great,” said Zubrick, a clinical psychologist and professor at Curtin University of Technology in Perth.
”The focus needs to shift substantially to the early years of child development to help Aboriginal children be ready, socially and academically, to learn at school.” – AFP
