Ceres
01-10-2009, 10:05 PM
This article had me shaking my head. It raises so many more questions than answers.
Does school attendance equal an education? Is the education meaningful to the children receiving it? Why is school attendance a positive outcome, what benefit is it providing? And WHY on earth is it linked to welfare payments.. and on the other hand why is it not linked to welfare payments for non-Indigenous Australians? From where I am standing it just looks like gross racism.
http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,,26147905-16741,00.html
Tough love changes lives on Cape York
October 01, 2009
Article from: The Australian (http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/)
Noel Pearson's reforms are grounded in local communities
IT is indisputable, as Indigenous Affairs Minister Jenny Macklin says, that education and employment are the keys to closing the life expectancy gap between indigenous and other Australians. They are also essential to improving the lives of all disadvantaged people. In remote communities, progress has eluded various authorities for decades, however, which is why programs producing outstanding results, such as lawyer Noel Pearson's Cape York reform agenda, deserve to be encouraged and where necessary, emulated.
School attendance in Aurukun on the western cape has lifted from 37 per cent 12 months ago to 62 per cent since the introduction of the Family Responsibilities Commission, which links school attendance to welfare. Alcohol restrictions have also helped, as has the innovative leadership of school principal Liz Mackie, who instigated a "no suspensions, no exclusions" policy.
At Mossman Gorge, attendance increased from an average 60.9 per cent 12 months ago to 81.6 per cent. And in Hope Vale, Mr Pearson's home community, and Coen, which are also part of the four-year Cape York Welfare Reform Trial, attendance remains high at 86.9 per cent and 93.6 per cent - in line with much of Australia.
Much of the success on the cape is due to the fact that solutions have not been imposed by outsiders, but come from local elders, who make up the Family Responsibilities Commission in each community. They understand the local people, speak their language and in most cases, encourage and help them to avoid welfare quarantining, which is an effective last resort. Between April and June this year, 252 school attendance notices and 31 conditional income management orders were issued. Progress on the cape contrasts with the inertia of some remote communities in the Northern Territory. Under the NT intervention, income quarantining has improved consumption of fresh food. But so far, not one parent who consistently fails to send a child to school has had his or her welfare payments suspended, although attendances have improved. The measures came into force in six NT communities at the start of the year, but federal and Territory bureaucrats appear to be reluctant to implement them. It is up to Ms Macklin to see they do, because further lifting the Territory's woeful attendance rates must be a priority.
Erroneously, some critics claim linking welfare quarantining and school attendance is discriminatory. The salient issue, however, is not the racial background of the children missing school, but the importance of ensuring all parents take responsibility to see they attend. This is why Ms Macklin and Queensland Premier Anna Bligh are to be commended for expanding income management to all welfare recipients, irrespective of race, in the outer southern suburbs of Brisbane - Logan, Woodridge, Kingston and Eagleby, where some schools report attendances 10 to 15 per cent below the rest of the state. Under the year-long trial, parents' welfare payments could be suspended, as a last resort, for up to 13 weeks if they fail to send their children to school regularly.
After decades of bureaucratic failure, the Family Responsibilities Commission has broken through a seemingly intractable impasse where all other approaches failed. Its success provides a framework for achieving similar success in other disadvantaged areas, both indigenous and non-indigenous.
Does school attendance equal an education? Is the education meaningful to the children receiving it? Why is school attendance a positive outcome, what benefit is it providing? And WHY on earth is it linked to welfare payments.. and on the other hand why is it not linked to welfare payments for non-Indigenous Australians? From where I am standing it just looks like gross racism.
http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,,26147905-16741,00.html
Tough love changes lives on Cape York
October 01, 2009
Article from: The Australian (http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/)
Noel Pearson's reforms are grounded in local communities
IT is indisputable, as Indigenous Affairs Minister Jenny Macklin says, that education and employment are the keys to closing the life expectancy gap between indigenous and other Australians. They are also essential to improving the lives of all disadvantaged people. In remote communities, progress has eluded various authorities for decades, however, which is why programs producing outstanding results, such as lawyer Noel Pearson's Cape York reform agenda, deserve to be encouraged and where necessary, emulated.
School attendance in Aurukun on the western cape has lifted from 37 per cent 12 months ago to 62 per cent since the introduction of the Family Responsibilities Commission, which links school attendance to welfare. Alcohol restrictions have also helped, as has the innovative leadership of school principal Liz Mackie, who instigated a "no suspensions, no exclusions" policy.
At Mossman Gorge, attendance increased from an average 60.9 per cent 12 months ago to 81.6 per cent. And in Hope Vale, Mr Pearson's home community, and Coen, which are also part of the four-year Cape York Welfare Reform Trial, attendance remains high at 86.9 per cent and 93.6 per cent - in line with much of Australia.
Much of the success on the cape is due to the fact that solutions have not been imposed by outsiders, but come from local elders, who make up the Family Responsibilities Commission in each community. They understand the local people, speak their language and in most cases, encourage and help them to avoid welfare quarantining, which is an effective last resort. Between April and June this year, 252 school attendance notices and 31 conditional income management orders were issued. Progress on the cape contrasts with the inertia of some remote communities in the Northern Territory. Under the NT intervention, income quarantining has improved consumption of fresh food. But so far, not one parent who consistently fails to send a child to school has had his or her welfare payments suspended, although attendances have improved. The measures came into force in six NT communities at the start of the year, but federal and Territory bureaucrats appear to be reluctant to implement them. It is up to Ms Macklin to see they do, because further lifting the Territory's woeful attendance rates must be a priority.
Erroneously, some critics claim linking welfare quarantining and school attendance is discriminatory. The salient issue, however, is not the racial background of the children missing school, but the importance of ensuring all parents take responsibility to see they attend. This is why Ms Macklin and Queensland Premier Anna Bligh are to be commended for expanding income management to all welfare recipients, irrespective of race, in the outer southern suburbs of Brisbane - Logan, Woodridge, Kingston and Eagleby, where some schools report attendances 10 to 15 per cent below the rest of the state. Under the year-long trial, parents' welfare payments could be suspended, as a last resort, for up to 13 weeks if they fail to send their children to school regularly.
After decades of bureaucratic failure, the Family Responsibilities Commission has broken through a seemingly intractable impasse where all other approaches failed. Its success provides a framework for achieving similar success in other disadvantaged areas, both indigenous and non-indigenous.