Observations on the Operation of a Unit for Aboriginal Students in Katherine High School

Abstract

Katherine High School is the only school offering secondary education in the region and thus is catering to the educational demands of a culturally diverse community. In seeking to meet these requirements the school has endorsed the Participation and Equity Program (PEP) of the Federal Department of Education and one highly successful and continuingly popular experimental component of this program has been the TESL (Aboriginal) unit.This unit represents the attempts of educators and community members to construct an educational environment in which the aspirations of the Aboriginal people can be ameliorated without compromising their Aboriginality.

Attitudes of Aboriginal Students to Schooling

“…The findings on attitudes to absenteeism support the view of Wilkinson (1987) that while Aboriginal parents have the right to withdraw their children from school for reasons that are legitimate their children are usually not absent from school without their parents' knowledge. Aboriginal parents and children are opposed to absenting themselves from school, are antiabsenteeism and Aboriginal children do not regularly stay away from school.…”