Funding for Indigenous education should be explicit and exclusive to achieve results

Comments on Helen Hughes and Mark Hughes “Protecting bad teachers produces chronic failure”, 9/03/2011, http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/opinion/protecting-bad-teachers-produces-chronic-failure/story-e6frg6zo-1226017996627


The education of Indigenous children is extremely important, but sadly the current results are not encouraging.

There are many reasons for that and some can be very complex.

Both the commonwealth and state and territory governments need to develop an overarching strategy. Government funding should be explicitly identified and used exclusively for the purpose of educating Indigenous children and should not be shifted to any other purposes.

Competition should be encouraged and introduced to improve efficiency and results.

The current management of Indigenous education is not achieving the results that most people including Indigenous people have hoped. There is not much accountability in terms of funding, use and results.

This must change and the earlier that occurs, the better for Indigenous education.