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| Members of local agencies with Veronica Pegler from the Indigenous Youth Mobility Programme |
And how the campaign has grown. To the extent that over 900 events will take place across the country today. It is possible to be cynical. It is just another label - we had self determination, reconciliation, main-streaming and now we have 'close the gap'. I have heard it said that the gap we need to close is the gap between what governments say they will do and what they actually do. But despite this I am a fan. The campaign is powerful for a few reasons. Firstly it is evidence based. So it is not wrapped up in ideology - but instead can focus on what actually works. Secondly flowing on from this the campaign is strengths based. It focuses on real partnerships with local Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities and promotes best practise. The third thing I like about "Close the Gap" is that it is based around the Social Determinants of Health. That is it is not a narrow focus which looks at people turning up to their local clinic or hospital - but it looks at education, housing, employment, rates of incarceration and levels of discrimination. That is it considers the causes - not just the symptoms.
The main thing I like about "Close the Gap" is if working properly it holds us all accountable. I'm going to lose some of the teachers here but I am a fan of testing and a fan of NAPLAN. Not as a tool to compare schools on a league table - nor as a narrow focus for curriculum - but as one way of measuring how well an individual students is going in literacy and numeracy and also how a particular school or school system is going. For parents with students who have strong literacy and numeracy skills NAPLAN is probably not all that helpful. But for those students who are struggling it can be a crucial beginning tool. And this is an important point. Identifying the problem does not solve the problem! It is the only place to start - but we must find strategies and resources which work - otherwise we will merely become experts in documenting disasters.
The reason I think the benefits of NAPLAN and testing outweigh the negatives can be clearly seen in the area of Indigenous education. In 2008 I was part of a group of teachers establishing Tiwi College on Melville Island. As part of our routine we sat down with parents in the community and discussed report cards and their children's progress. Hardly radical - but when I survey parent-teacher interview nights - I am not sure how many parents with students struggling are turning up. Tough as it was, in some cases as teachers we sat down with parents and told them that their son or daughter was in Year 11 but struggled to read the equivalent of a year two level student. That didn't address the issue but it was certainly better than the post-modern nonsense that masqueraded as assessment previously. (eg. student X is achieving at expected level). I'll outline what is happening in a number of schools across the country to address this in another post. For now I want to shine the light on a brilliant project that is using technology to promote literacy for Aboriginal students throughout the country.
The Indigenous Reading Project (IRP) was established just last year. The idea is very simple. Students who are below the national minimum standard for reading are targeted as part of the project. The hook is a free Kindle. Well almost. Students are given a free Kindle e-reader to upload and read books for three months. They are pre-tested and then post-tested. Those who have progressed, improved their test results and received positive feedback from parents and teachers then get to keep the kindle. And the good news is..... it is working! The first group of students had improved the time they spent reading by 154% Their fluency levels had improved by 51% and comprehension by 42%
There will be 100 Kindles sent to Aboriginal students around the country this year. Every state and territory has students involved. We have had a student from the Toowoomba region take part in the Indigenous Reading project and there have been students from other regional centres in Queensland and New South Wales part of the IRP as well. The small and passionate team who make IRP happen are putting out the challenge to Amazon - the company that sells the Kindle. Amazon makes around a billion dollars every year in sales in Australia. It would be fair to say that they are not the country's largest tax payer and do not give any support to local charities. The Indigenous Reading Project represents a great opportunity for Amazon to enable thousands of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students around the country improve their literacy.
And there are so many possibilities when that literacy is in place. On Tuesday morning I was inspired by a visit to the Indigenous Youth Mobility Programme (IYMP). It's motto is "making tracks to close the gap" and it certainly is doing that. IYMP supports young Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people from remote communities study at university and further education levels. In Toowoomba there are 34 young people from all over our state studying and training as nurses, health workers, engineers and many other professions. They are guided and supported as they make a pathway to employment.
On so many social indicators the Gap still remains. With transparency, good resources, evidence and real partnerships with local Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people there is however grounds for hope.
Click here to find out more about how you can support the Indigenous Reading Project
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| Katelyn Ferguson from South Grafton High with a Kindle from the Indigenous Reading Project |
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