Findings
Against arguments
Throughout the years, numerous measures have been taken to close the gap and accomplish educational fairness of Indigenous Australians (Ministerial Council on Education, Employment, Training and Youth Affairs [MCEETYA], 2000). For Indigenous children, closing the education gap would mean, these children often having to assimilate to non-Indigenous mainstream schooling systems. This may result in Indigenous children losing their identity and culture (Korff, 2016) because Indigenous ways of knowing and learning vary to non-Indigenous ways of knowing and learning (Santoro, Reid, Crawford & Simpson, 2011).
Besides, considerable effort is required to improve educational outcomes with complex factors such as barriers to …show more content…
Research has found that there is a strong link between a student’s performance and school attendance and that 20 percent of the gap in school performance is caused by poor attendance (Department of Prime Minister & Cabinet, 2015). Hence, to close the gap, the Government requires every child to attend school on a regular basis. However, many Indigenous children live in rural areas, and they would have to leave their communities if they are to attend school. This becomes a problem because many Indigenous children are closely connected to their community. Hence they prefer to live in their communities instead of leaving their communities to gain education qualifications (Korff, …show more content…
They think that their strength lies within their Aboriginal culture, and this acts as a protective force for families and children (Lohoar, Butera & Kennedy, 2014). On the contrary, too close the gap, the Australian government believes that Indigenous children need to be taught English to participate in Australian society fully. It is unfortunate to note that the opportunities for Indigenous children to use their home languages are slowly decreasing. Schools offer these children little or no material in their languages to study. Furthermore, having to learn in English would hinder the children’s opportunities to speak in their home languages. Only a few schools teach about the works of verbal art of Indigenous communities, and most schools often limit Indigenous education to one-off activities such as dot painting, which does not do justice to indigenous ways of
Against arguments
Throughout the years, numerous measures have been taken to close the gap and accomplish educational fairness of Indigenous Australians (Ministerial Council on Education, Employment, Training and Youth Affairs [MCEETYA], 2000). For Indigenous children, closing the education gap would mean, these children often having to assimilate to non-Indigenous mainstream schooling systems. This may result in Indigenous children losing their identity and culture (Korff, 2016) because Indigenous ways of knowing and learning vary to non-Indigenous ways of knowing and learning (Santoro, Reid, Crawford & Simpson, 2011).
Besides, considerable effort is required to improve educational outcomes with complex factors such as barriers to …show more content…
Research has found that there is a strong link between a student’s performance and school attendance and that 20 percent of the gap in school performance is caused by poor attendance (Department of Prime Minister & Cabinet, 2015). Hence, to close the gap, the Government requires every child to attend school on a regular basis. However, many Indigenous children live in rural areas, and they would have to leave their communities if they are to attend school. This becomes a problem because many Indigenous children are closely connected to their community. Hence they prefer to live in their communities instead of leaving their communities to gain education qualifications (Korff, …show more content…
They think that their strength lies within their Aboriginal culture, and this acts as a protective force for families and children (Lohoar, Butera & Kennedy, 2014). On the contrary, too close the gap, the Australian government believes that Indigenous children need to be taught English to participate in Australian society fully. It is unfortunate to note that the opportunities for Indigenous children to use their home languages are slowly decreasing. Schools offer these children little or no material in their languages to study. Furthermore, having to learn in English would hinder the children’s opportunities to speak in their home languages. Only a few schools teach about the works of verbal art of Indigenous communities, and most schools often limit Indigenous education to one-off activities such as dot painting, which does not do justice to indigenous ways of