Education matters

A lot has been said about eduaction being an answer to indigenous problems and I for one have raised it often. In my recent trip to Arnhem Land I listened to supporters of Black Prince Galarrwuy Yunupingu talk of his plan of identifying young talent and sending them off to southern boarding schools. All well and good, I though, but what of the rest. Not only is there a dearth of schools in indigenous country but without parental support the education that is available isn’t working. Truancy rates are too high and as a result too few kids reach high school age anywhere near the standard of their white counterparts. An atmosphere that doesn’t revere education hardly encourages kids to study at night. So, whereas I support recent talk of sending kids to southern boarding schools I also ask what are we doing about those that are not meeting the standards to enter high school. Education in situ needs to be fixed as well. Noel Pearson raises the subject in a piece entitled Noel Pearson: No danger of another stolen generation. Stolen generations, Jesus, why do we always have to preempt left wing caterwauling. At least we are discussing indigenous education.