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Indigenous Education (Targeted Assistance) Amendment Bill
WARNING:
This Digest was prepared for debate. It reflects the legislation as introduced
and does not canvass subsequent amendments. This Digest does not have
any official legal status. Other sources should be consulted to determine
the subsequent official status of the Bill.
CONTENTS
Passage History
Purpose
Background
Financial implications
Main Provisions
Concluding Comments
Endnotes
Contact Officer & Copyright Details
Indigenous Education
(Targeted Assistance) Amendment Bill
House: House of Representatives
Portfolio: Education, Science and Training
Commencement: Royal Assent
The purpose of the Indigenous Education (Targeted Assistance) Amendment Bill 2006 (the Bill) is to amend the Indigenous Education (Targeted Assistance) Act 2000 (the current Act) to appropriate an additional $43.6 million from 2006 to 2008 to:
The current Act provides quadrennium funding for the years 2005–2008, primarily for the Indigenous Education Strategic Initiatives Programme (IESIP) to assist Indigenous students in government and non-government schools, including small independent Indigenous schools. Funding may go to all education sectors from pre-school to tertiary. It includes ‘Away From Base’ funding for ABSTUDY students attending compulsory course activities and funding for special projects. Funding is provided through agreements made with education providers.
In November 2004 amendments to the current Act brought the Indigenous Education Direct Assistance (IEDA) programme, including the Indigenous Tutorial Assistance Scheme (ITAS), under the current Act to ensure program funding for the quadrennium and align the IEDA program with calendar rather than financial years.(1)
The Bill appropriates an additional $25.7 million to extend ITAS to Year 9 students ($14.5 million) and to vocational education and training students ($11.2 million).
ITAS, formerly the Aboriginal Tutorial Assistance Scheme, has operated since 1990 providing individual and in-school tuition of up to five hours a week for school and post-secondary students. Since the IEDA review in 2004 the Government has emphasised in-class tuition for students not meeting the Year 3, 5 and 7 literacy and numeracy benchmarks, and individual and small group tuition for Years 10, 11 and 12 students.
In the 2006–07 Budget the Minister for Families, Community Services and Indigenous Affairs announced funding of $15.6 million over three years to December 2008 to extend tuition, currently available to Years 10, 11 and 12 Indigenous students, to Year 9 students.(2) The Bill appropriates $14.5 million. The $1.1 million discrepancy between the Budget announcement and the appropriated amount is not explained.
In 2003 the grade progression ratio of Indigenous students from Year
9 to Year 10 was 89.2 per cent compared to 99.0 per cent for non-Indigenous
students.(3) Improving this transition point at the end of
compulsory schooling has been identified as a contributing factor to achieving
increased Year 12 retention rates. The Department of Education, Science
and Training (DEST) expects the initiative to assist 4800 Year 9 students,
50 per cent of whom are enrolled in remote areas or remote schools and
10 per cent in non-remote schools, from 2007 to 2008. Students would receive
four hours tuition per week for 35 weeks.(4) The Indigenous
Education Programmes Provider Guidelines
In the 2006–07 Budget the Minister for Families, Community Services and Indigenous Affairs announced funding of $21.8 million over four years (to 30 June 2010) to extend ITAS to VET students studying at Certificate Level III and higher.(6) Previously ITAS was not available to VET students. The second reading speech states that $11.2 million will be appropriated until December 2008. The Minister for Education, Science and Training estimates 20 000 Indigenous VET students undertaking courses leading to a Certificate Level III qualification, or above, will benefit from access to tutorial assistance for up to two hours per week.(7)
More than 58 000 Indigenous students undertook some publicly funded vocational education and training in 2003. This training took place in a wide range of environments including TAFE colleges, schools, with a private provider or in an Indigenous-specific environment. However Indigenous students are under-represented in courses at the Certificate III and IV levels and Diploma and higher levels, courses that if successfully completed significantly increase the employment prospects for Indigenous Australians.(8) Furthermore Indigenous students are under-represented in course completions. In 2003 Indigenous students comprised 3.4 per cent of VET students but course completions by Indigenous students made up only 2.5 per cent of the AQF level course completions.(9) Extending tutorial assistance to VET students should assist in improving Indigenous completion rates.
In the 2006–07 Budget the Minister for Families, Community Services and
Indigenous Affairs announced $19.6 million over four years to
‘Community festivals for health promotion’ is a 2006–07 Budget education measure. The Government will provide a total of $16.1 million over four years to sponsor festivals such as ‘Croc Festivals’ for Indigenous and non-Indigenous students in remote areas and the Rock Eisteddfods for high school students.(12) The Bill appropriates $7.3 million for Croc Festivals for 2006–2008.
Croc Festivals began in 1998
when the former Queensland Minister for Health, Mike Horan, asked the
producers of the Rock Eisteddfod Challenge to find a way of involving
young people from Cape York and the Torres Strait Islands in the event.
Croc Festivals aim to encourage school attendance and promote healthy
lifestyles without substance abuse. Commonwealth Government sponsorship
of Croc Festivals commenced in 2000 and Commonwealth Government funding
for the six years to
In the 2006–07 Budget the Minister for Education, Science and Training announced that from 2007 DEST will be the lead agency responsible for community festivals for Indigenous young people.(15) DEST expects to spend ‘around $3 million or thereabouts as a contribution toward conducting Indigenous youth festivals and probably around $700,000 a year as a contribution toward other initiatives’.(16) Funding will now be appropriated by the current Act rather than from the previous diverse range of grants.
The Bill will increase the appropriation under section 14A of the current Act by a net $43.6 million over the 2006 to 2008 calendar years.
Items 1 to 3 update the appropriations for each calendar year in Schedule 1 of the current Act to increase net quadrennium funding by $43.6 million.
The Bill continues the Government’s emphasis on providing a greater weighting of resources towards Indigenous students in remote areas. The Government regards these Indigenous students to be at greatest disadvantage. The initiatives further implement the Government’s policy aimed at improving school attendance and retention rates, particularly in remote communities, and closing the gaps between Indigenous and non-Indigenous students.(17)
Debate on Indigenous education should recognize the important context of Indigenous demographics. Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples are a young population with a median age of 20.5 years, 39 per cent of whom are under 15 years, compared to 20 per cent for the non-Indigenous population.(18) Although the Bill extends funding for ITAS, this funding is capped. Considering the significant growth in the Indigenous school-age population this could result in a shortfall of tuition places—a conclusion supported by the 2004 IEDA review in which DEST staff noted that the IEDA program had not received any major increases in funding, other than annual indexation, since its establishment in 1991.(19)
This paper has been prepared to support the work of the Australian Parliament using information available at the time of production. The views expressed do not reflect an official position of the Parliamentary Library, nor do they constitute professional legal opinion.
ISSN 1328-8091
© Commonwealth of Australia 2006
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Published by the Parliamentary Library, 2006.