Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Education: Challenges and Recommendations

Aboriginal and culturally responsive pedagogies

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Option 2
Introduction
Education is a crucial part of life and it must be ensured that all the communities, irrespective of
their diverse values, are receiving proper education in order to boost the literacy rate as well as
the employment rate in the country. This essay is focused on assessing different important
aspects related to the learning system for the pupils from Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander
communities. It reflects specific needs of those students along with recommendations for the
teachers.
Educational needs for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders
It is known that Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people are having different cultural and
social background than the rest of Australia. They are having a rich cultural background which is
positive as well as negative in some context. Due to the highly contrasting lifestyle of Aboriginal
and Torres Islander communities, their education systems also differ from each other. In old
times, the Aboriginal and Torres Islander people used to identify the skills of their youths and
work towards strengthening those skills. As per Harrison & Sellwood (2016), this was the way
through which young people could contribute to their community. No decisions were imposed
upon them regarding their future professions. Rather, they were helped thoroughly in identifying
their existing abilities so that it can be made better and can be utilised for the greater good of the
community and its people. Only children of the rich families were facilitated with educational
support. As for the children of less fortunate families, they were deprived of education for a long
time. Gradually, education took a drastic turn and it got mixed up with religious beliefs. For the
following years, cathedrals and monasteries took the charge of education and added the essence
of religion in the same (Price, 2015). Most of the people had no access to education; there were
vast number of illiterate people. The priests were accountable for providing education to the sons
of significant people. Higher education was like a distant dream for most of the people. The
Industrial revolution of Europe introduced schooling system to the people. But its main objective
was to instruct pupils to form a skilled labour force rather than rendering true education to them
(Kinnane, Wilks, Wilson, Hughes & Thomas, 2014). The system was more focused on creating
not well-educated, but well-trained countrymen.

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The Aboriginal and Torres Islander people were concerned about educating their children, but by
following their own way. The education they provided their children with was more community-
centric than that of mainstream education. Since childhood they were taught about their history
and different important aspects about their community (Carey et al. 2017). They had their own
educational system with various facilities for their children. A teacher, a mentor and a peer were
assigned for each of the children as they grew up. Tutors were also there who made sure that the
children become familiar with the rich history of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander
people. It is crucial for the Aboriginals and Torres Strait Islander people to ensure that the new
generation gets to know their history and culture closely in order to maintain their traditions in
future as well. As initially they are less prone in sending their children to schools, they did not
get adequate chance to mix up with other children outside their community. As a result, an
invisible barrier was created between the Australian children and children belonging from
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander community. Although, the air of western education brought
new concepts in the educational system of the country, impacting it greatly, the Aboriginals and
Torres Strait Islander people kept following their own specialised education system for a very
long time. For years, poor level educational facilities were existed for the Aboriginal and Torres
Strait Islander community from the end of the Government (Morris & Burgess, 2018). With time
the scenario changed as more facilities were allotted for Aboriginals and Torres Strait Islander
people to take their education graph higher. A number of changes were planned to be
implemented for the educational facilities towards Aboriginals and Torres Strait Islander people
such as, provision of remedial teachers, employment of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander
aids for schools, specialised curriculum materials, provision of early childhood programs, and
relevant courses to meet the needs of this community (Price, 2015).
After the education system allowed more facilities towards Aboriginal and Torres Islander
communities, they were provided with equal opportunities in education. The education level for
the community rose and the only thing which became a barrier for their education is their
participation. Initially, the participation of the children of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander
communities were very low compared to other children of the country (Funston & Herring,
2016). The Government allotted facilities to the community but the Aboriginals and Torres Strait
Islander people were reluctant to send their children to schools initially. As a result, the schools
had very low attendance of children coming from Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander