Media Release
Tackling student mobility across borders
28 February 2008
Representatives from the Commonwealth Government, Western Australia, South Australia and the Independent and Catholic education sectors are meeting in Alice Springs with Northern Territory representatives to tackle the high mobility of Indigenous students across borders.
The two-day workshop is being hosted by the Department of Employment, Education and Training to develop a better understanding of Indigenous mobility and a joint approach to support and track Indigenous students who move across state and territory borders.
Deputy Chief Executive Ken Davies said, “There is no question that regular attendance at school is the key to improving educational outcomes for Indigenous students. This is particularly important for Indigenous students in remote communities where attendance rates are on average 25% lower than for non-Indigenous remote students.
“Movement of students from remote communities to outstations, urban areas or over state and territory borders during the school term is one of the many challenges that we face in delivering a high quality education program in remote areas.“
Outcomes of the meeting include identifying local practices that have been successful in engaging transient students and setting out a workable action plan to minimise the impact of cross border movement on school attendance.
Mr Davies said, “The Department is working closely with other jurisdictions and sectors to develop practices that create educational continuity, for instance understanding the impact of privacy legislation on allowing schools to share student records across borders.
“This complements Territory-wide initiatives like school attendance campaigns and scholarships for Indigenous people to train as teachers.
“On a regional and local level the Department and schools are working directly with parents to promote the value of education and to support families to send their children to school wherever they are.“
The workshop is one of the activities of the national Australian Education Systems Officials Committee Reference Group on Indigenous Transient Students.
“The Department is playing an active role on the national front with two members on the National Student Attendance Unit and through hosting workshops like this to share approaches that are successful in improving school attendance,” Mr Davies said.