Push for better First Nations education support

Stronger Smarter Institute CEO, Dyonne Anderson, spoke to Patricia Karvelas on Radio National Breakfast.

NAPLAN results have shown educational disadvantage remains entrenched across Australia, with one third of Indigenous students categorised as “needing additional support” — and nearly 90 per cent of students in remote communities are failing to reach minimum standards.

Dyonne told RN Breakfast that it’s not a level playing field, and the data keeps telling us that. “We’ve got a western education system that reflects the dominant culture so when we have policy makers and education policies to inform systems that are reflection of themselves, featuring culture that reflects the dominant view, we’re always going to be a step behind,” Dyonne said.

Dyonne explained that when First Nations students are entering the education system, it is not meeting their needs. “This is not a recent concern, but a generational one,” she said. “We’ve got the Closing the Gap Agenda which is all about despair, deficit and disadvantage and as First Nations people we had very little input into what are the solutions required for our children to have a level of success”.

Dyonne told RN Breakfast that the work needs to be led by the profession, and that we need to hear the First Nations voices that are so often excluded. “There needs to be some rethinking around what needs to happen, and the position of power is not always in favour of First Nations people. So, it’s about shifting the agenda and shifting who is part of the solutions.”

You can listen to the interview at https://www.abc.net.au/listen/programs/radionational-breakfast/naplan-indigenous/104226162