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CONTENTS
Indigenous Education (Supplementary Assistance)
Amendment Bill 1997
Date Introduced: 18 June 1997
House: House of Representatives
Portfolio: Employment, Education, Training and
Youth Affairs
Commencement: Royal Assent
To amend the Indigenous Education (Supplementary Assistance)
Act 1989 (Cwlth) (the Principal Act) in order to:
- remove the requirement that at least 10% of enrolled students
be Indigenous students before certain educational and training
institutions can be funded under the Indigenous Education Strategic
Initiatives Programme; and
- provide for the cost supplementation of certain grants under
the Act.
Indigenous education has been the subject of a large number of
national reports during the past twenty years - beginning with a
1975 report by the Aboriginal Consultative Group to the Schools
Commission. Most recently there was a National Review of Education
for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples chaired by
Mandawuy Yunupingu. The review was established in 1993 and reported
in 1994.(1)
In 1988, an Aboriginal Education Policy Task Force was appointed
by the Minister for Employment, Education and Training and the
Minister for Aboriginal Affairs. The Task Force's report proposed
the establishment of a national Aboriginal Education Policy (AEP).
The AEP (now called the National Aboriginal and Torres Strait
Islander Education Policy) was developed co-operatively by the
Commonwealth, the States and the Territories in 1989 and emphasised
'involvement, access, participation and outcomes.' The importance
of the Policy has been described in these terms:
... for the first time, the States and the Territories were able
to identify and unanimously support a series of national goals for
indigenous education; the Policy facilitated many new initiatives
that created a national focus on indigenous education and raised
the profile of the issue; the Policy was based on a triennial
funding model enabling, for the first time, longer term planning
for programs; and the national Policy included a supplementary
funding program, the Aboriginal Education Strategic Initiatives
Scheme, to fill the gaps in the programs of the States and
Territories.'(2)
The establishment of the Policy was followed by the enactment of
the Aboriginal Education (Supplementary Assistance) Act
1989 which provides funds for what is now called the
Indigenous Education Strategic Initiatives Program (IESIP).
The National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Education
Policy has four long term objectives:
- increasing the involvement of Aboriginal and Torres Strait
Islander people in educational decision making;
- ensuring equality of access to educational services;
- achieving equity of educational participation; and
- enabling equitable and appropriate education outcomes.
The NATIEP also sets down 21 agreed goals for Aboriginal and
Torres Strait Islander education covering all education sectors, to
be pursued by all governments. The policy was re-affirmed by the
Ministerial Council on Education, Employment, Training and Youth
Affairs in 1995.
IESIP is part of the Commonwealth's contribution to the National
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Education Policy. It provides
funds to organisations and institutions to supplement the cost of
delivering educational services to Aboriginal people. The program
supports pre-schools, primary and secondary schools, and technical
and further education. The funding is provided by the Commonwealth
as a supplement to the normal provision of funds for education to
the States and Territories.
Educational Participation for Aboriginal and Torres Strait
Islander Peoples
The National Review of Education for Aboriginal and Torres
Strait Islander Peoples reported in 1994 that educational
experiences for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples
improved 'in the last five years'. However, the Review found that
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples continued to be 'the
most educationally disadvantaged groups in Australia.' Among other
things, the Review's Summary and Recommendations states
that:
- 'while the gap between Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander
and other Australian 4 year olds preschool participation has almost
halved, it remains significant at 9.5 per cent,(3)
- in all but two States/Territories there appears to be
increasing levels of participation by Aboriginal and Torres Strait
Islander children in primary school education. The majority of
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children now commence and
complete a primary school education,
- 'significant numbers of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander
secondary school students do not complete compulsory Years 8 or 9.
An estimated 25 per cent or more of those who start secondary
school leave before the end of Year 10.'(4)
- 'Nationally, just over 25 per cent of the Aboriginal and Torres
Strait Islander students who started Year 7 or 8 five or four years
ago (depending on the State or Territory) were enrolled in Year 12
in 1993. ... Despite the concerted efforts of the last decade to
raise Year 12 retention rates for all Australian students,
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students' current Year 12
retention rate is now what it was for all Australian students more
than twenty years ago.'(5)
Indigenous Education (Supplementary Assistance) Amendment Bill
1997
In 1996, the Principal Act was amended by the Indigenous
Education (Supplementary Assistance) Amendment Act 1996 (the
1996 Act). Among other things, the 1996 Act provided statutory
criteria for funding for supplementary recurrent expenditure to
certain schools, pre-schools and other institutions. Eligibility
criteria and formulae to be applied to determine a per capita
amount for each educational sector were inserted by sections 10B to
10F.(6) Section 10A sets out a per capita funding table.
Amendments included in the Indigenous Education (Supplementary
Assistance) Amendment Bill 1997 relate to certain non-government
schools(7) and non-government VET institutions(8) which are covered
by sections 10D, 10E and 10F. The amendments in the 1997 Bill
relate to the eligibility criteria which must be satisfied before
the Minister can authorise a payment to those schools and
institutions. According to the Explanatory Memorandum:
The non-government Schools Census shows that out of a total of
10,853 Indigenous students enrolled in non-government schools,
1,428 (13%) of these students attend non-systemic schools in which
the Indigenous enrolments are less than 10% of the total enrolment.
There is one school, for example, which has 70 Indigenous students
out of a total enrolment of more than 700 and does not attract
supplementary recurrent per capita funding because it fails the 10%
requirement.(9)
Schedule 1 of the Bill relates to the funding
of education for Indigenous students. Item 1 of Schedule
1 repeals paragraph 10D(1)(c) of the Principal Act.
Paragraph 10D(1)(c) provides that the Minister may authorise a
payment for a funding year for a non-government non-systemic school
if a number of criteria are met. At present, these criteria include
a requirement that the Indigenous students enrolled for a year at
the school number 20 or more and constitute 10% or more of
the total number of students.
Item 1 repeals present paragraph 10D(1)(c) and
replaces it with new paragraph 10D(1)(c) which
removes the 10% requirement but retains the requirement that the
number of Indigenous students at the school number 20 or more.
Item 2 of Schedule 1 repeals paragraph
10E(1)(c) of the Principal Act. At present, paragraph 10E(1)(c)
provides that the Minister may authorise a payment to a
non-systemic non-government pre-school for a funding year if a
number of criteria are met. These criteria include a requirement
that Indigenous students enrolled for a year at the school number 5
or more and constitute 10% or more of the total number of
students at the school. Item 2 of Schedule 1
inserts new paragraph 10E(1)(c) which removes the
10% requirement but retains the requirement that the number of
Indigenous students at the school must number 5 or more.
Item 3 of Schedule 1 repeals paragraph
10F(1)(c). Present paragraph 10F(1)(c) provides that the Minister
may authorise funding to a non-government VET institution if a
number of criteria are met. These include that the Indigenous
students at the institution number 20 or more and constitute
10% of the enrolled students at the institution. Item
3 inserts new paragraph 10F(1)(c) which
removes the 10% requirement but retains the requirement that the
number of Indigenous students at the institution number 20 or
more.
The Explanatory Memorandum to the Bill states that:
The 10% requirement has had the unforeseen and undesired
consequence of denying supplementary financial assistance from the
Commonwealth to educational institutions with significant
Indigenous enrolments. ... The 10% requirement is not necessary
given the continuation of the additional requirement of the
principal [sic] Act that the relevant educational institutions have
a minimum number of Indigenous students ...(10)
Schedule 2 of the Bill relates to cost
supplementation. Item 1 of Schedule 2 inserts
new section 13C which has the effect of enabling
appropriations under the Principal Act to be supplemented by an
indexed amount which is to be fixed by regulation.
Item 2 of Schedule 2 inserts new
section 15 into the Principal Act. New section
15 enables the Governor-General to make regulations under
the Act.
- National Review of Education for Aboriginal and Torres Strait
Islander Peoples. Summary and Recommendations; Final Report;
Statistical Annex; (3 vols.), AGPS, Canberra, 1994.
- Schwab, RG Twenty years of policy recommendations for
indigenous education: overview and research implications,
Centre for Aboriginal Economic Policy Research, Discussion Paper,
No.92/1995, Australian National University, Canberra.
- National Review of Education for Aboriginal and Torres Strait
Islander Peoples, Summary and Recommendations, AGPS,
Canberra, September 1994: 22.
- ibid.
- ibid: 23.
- These sections covered the funding of government educational
institutions,. systemic non-government schools and pre-schools,
non-systemic non-government schools and pre-schools and
non-government VETs.
- Non-systemic schools can be contrasted with systemic schools.
Systemic schools are schools belonging to a system administered by
a central authority responsible for their funding and overall
policy. Such schools are declared to be part of an approved school
system by the Minister ... for the purposes of funding
legislation.' (see Jackson, K Commonwealth Grants for
Non-Government Schools in the States, 1976 to 1981: By Federal
Electoral Division and School. Basic Paper No.3, Legislative
Research Service, Department of the Parliamentary Library, 1983.
Catholic parochial schools are an example of systemic
non-government schools. 'Non-systemic schools are simply those
schools which are not part of a school system. It should be noted
that not all Catholic schools are systemic schools.' (Ibid).
- A 'VET' is a vocational educational and training
institution.
- page 2.
- ibid.
Jennifer Norberry
28 August 1997
Bills Digest Service
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This Digest does not have any official legal status. Other
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ISSN 1328-8091
Commonwealth of Australia 1997
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Published by the Department of the Parliamentary Library,
1997.
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Last updated: 29 August 1997
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