The history of indigenous education provision throughout Australia’s

remote areas is replete with instances of neglect, infrastructure shortfalls

and systemic underfunding. Every aboriginal child deserves the best

education probable and this has patently not been the case in the past. 【M1】__________

Indeed many aboriginal children in Australia’s remote north are still

unable to attend to secondary school in their own communities and 【M2】__________

children living in very remote outstation communities are still accepting 【M3】__________

only the most rudimentary of education services.

Aboriginal people in remote Australia face a great and deep

dilemma on engaging with the current education system. On the one 【M4】__________

hand, as Wyatt implies, education can be a pathway to social mobility,

can offer great economic returns and can be the key to alleviate social 【M5】__________

disadvantage.

However, education that does not allow for learning in your own

language but that is not inclusive of your social, cultural and economic 【M6】__________

values are not empowering. It is disempowering. 【M7】__________

At its worst, education can be the tool of acculturation and 【M8】__________

assimilation for remote aboriginal people. Education can usurp local social

structures and cause deep intergenerational divisions, and

education that is not connecting to the reality of a student’s daily life in 【M9】__________

remote community can seem utterly pointless, leading to engagement. 【M10】_________

【M5】