PRIVATE SCHOOLS ARE BOOMING IN THE ALICE
Celebration of 60 years of Catholic education in Alice Springs, and support by local teachers for a national union campaign against alleged erosion of state school funding, have brought into sharp focus the town's heavy reliance on private education.
More than 37 per cent of students in The Alice attend a non-government school, mostly run by churches.The Catholics are taking the lion's share with more than 900 attending three campuses, from Transition to Year 12.The Lutherans run Yirara College and Living Waters, and the Uniting Church, St Philip's College.In all, 1996 Central Australian children are in private education, while 3327 go to schools run by the NT Government.Alice Springs is well above the national average (30 per cent) for private schooling, and streets ahead of the Territory's 22 per cent.Brother Paul Gilchrist, the principal of the local Catholic education system, says the local churches' strong desire to "maintain their own ethos" lies at the root of the town's heavy use of denominational schooling.He says apart from that, there are "certain perceptions" about the standards of private education: it appears that the local private schools are now seen as a viable - and cheaper - alternative to sending children to college interstate, he says.Neither the Education Department nor any school will release exam results in any form, making an objective quality comparison between schools all but impossible.But one teacher told the Alice News that Year 12 exam results in the NT and South Australia are quite similar.However, he says, this tends to point to a lower standard in the NT: here the poor learners drop out because they can easily find a job.This is usually not an option in the economically depressed SA, where comparable students tend to stay at school, lowering the average exam scores.Br Gilchrist says the Catholic church, which started a school here with 28 children in 1938, now has a "very strong tradition" of teaching.Last week's action by local state school teachers - members of the Australian Education Union (AEU) - was sparked off by the Enrolment Benchmark Adjustment (EBA) introduced by Federal Education Minister David Kemp this year.The union says this is a ploy to divert funding from public to private schools.Michael Sandford, one of the two Alice Springs executive members of the AEU, says Canberra pays to the states and Territories $420 per year for every student enrolled in the public school system.By contrast, the Federal contribution to private schools is $1712.50 - more than four times greater.Mr Sandford says as Canberra clearly has a "finite" budget for education, every time one child enters private education, the subsidy for four children in public schools is lost."There may soon be no money left for people who don't have a choice about what school they send their children to," says Mr Sandford.Dr Kemp's initiative runs parallel to changes in criteria for subsidising new private schools, according to a spokesman for NT Education Minister Peter Adamson: for example, if previously, a new private school was likely to adversely affect enrolments in an existing state school, the chances for subsidies were diminished, or they were ruled out altogether.This now no longer applies, according to the spokesman, making the setting up of new private schools so much easier.Continuing privatisation of education is clearly attractive to the NT Government: a state school student costs more than $8000 a year, "the highest figure in Australia," according to the spokesman, while the NSW figure is less than $5500.He says the NT Government pays to private schools $983 for primary students, and $1517 for secondary ones, saving an average of $6850 a head.The spokesman says: "Funding on a per capita basis is maintained for each child in the Government system."Continuing choice in education is a policy of the NT Government. Provision of choice is critical to any democratic system."The relative cost of choice doesn't enter into the matter at this stage."At least on the face of it, private schools appear to be operating with far greater cost efficiencies.Br Paul says annual fees charged by the local Catholic schools range from $815 (up to Grade 6), to $1165 (Years 7 and 8), and $1620 (Years 9 to 12).This is an average of $1200 paid by parents - not counting substantial discounts for families with more than one student in the Catholic system.Br Paul says the school gets $1920 from Canberra for primary students, and $2804 for secondary ones. The corresponding subsidies from the NT Government are $1087 and $1641.In other words, the Catholic schools get by with an average of little more than $3000 a year per student - or $5000 less than the government run school system in the NT.Mr Adamson's spokesman says: "The fact is our system costs also account for the cost of delivering education to isolated rural locations, where private schools will not operate, because of the extraordinarily high cost."It is not reasonable to compare the two figures."Br Paul says the Catholic schools in The Alice have an average student to teacher ratio of 18 to one (52 "full time equivalent" teachers for 920 students).While salaries are now similar to the state system, in the past many members of religious orders were working "for very low wages".Mr Adamson's spokesman says the NT Government would not want the public system to be disadvantaged: "We don't support anything that takes money away from public schools," he says.The NT Government has spent $14m for new schools last year, including $5m for Larapinta Primary.However, even figures released by AEU Territory president Chris Sharpe show the trend towards private education. Of 959 new enrolments in the Territory this year, 45 per cent were into private schools.
WHAT STATE SCHOOLS COULD BE DOING BETTER.
COMMENT by BRUCE SIMMONS, school council supporter and member of COGSO, the parents' watchdog over public schools
In most Australian schools today we have had the past past, we're in the present past and we're looking towards the future past.In other words, schools haven't changed much in a hundred years and, even looking ahead, it seems we are planning to do more of the same. Yet there is overwhelming evidence that our schools are only just surviving under almost impossible conditions.Australian schools need the spotlight turned on them. They also need a massive increase in community support if they are to reverse current trends and provide all our children with "a fair go" educationally.Late last year, I joined seven other Territorians attending the Third National Health Promoting Schools Conference. At that challenging yet encouraging conference, three points became clear:
Firstly and tragically, in most Australian schools our students can neither get nor give a fair go.
Secondly, we know what's wrong in our schools and how we need to change; and there are great school leaders, success stories and models to lead our nations schools forward.
Thirdly, as a nation we are directionless and dispirited - but building a better future for our children through our schools could give us all renewed hope and purpose. As an Alice Springs resident for over 20 years and as a school councillor for 11, I've witnessed first hand the problems our schools face. I am grateful to the Alice News for allowing me to provide both a local and a national perspective on what's gone wrong in schools and how we might transform them. Speaking at the conference, Dr Don Edgar, a researcher and consultant on issues affecting Australian families, said that schools represented "the last hope for our nation to rebuild a lost sense of community". Joan Kirner, the former Victorian premier, told us that "we lack a national commitment". Four years ago, at a meeting with 30 members of the Anzac Hill High School student representative council, I was told "our parents don't care about our education, and even if they did, they are too tired at the end of the day to worry". Last year, at our NT Council of Government School Organisations Annual Conference, a group of Alice Springs secondary students told us that to care about your own education was square, uncool. If you tried at school you were a nerd. A health worker in Alice Springs told me some time ago that she estimated half of our primary school students got themselves up and came to school without breakfast. Quotes from two primary school teachers - "I feel like quitting, the system has just got me down" and "Once we teachers felt like baby sitters, now we feel like warders in remand homes" - are typical of many teachers' sentiments. Talking with other people and listening to the guest speakers at the conference made it clear that the woes of Alice Springs are shared across the nation. The National Health Promoting Schools Association (NHPSA) has now recognised the obvious, namely that successful education for any child is very highly dependent upon a close association with a hopeful, caring adult who can make that child's view of life and school positive and worthwhile.I'd like to quote from a study of 12,000 adolescents from 80 high schools across the United States. The lead researcher, Dr Michael Resnick, has spent a considerable amount of time in Australia and he believes the results apply here. Dr Resnick says: "Young people who indicated that strong sense of bonding, that closeness and attachment to family, regardless of the nature of the family - single parent, dual parent, adoptive family - and of whether those kids were rich or poor, those kids did better. Emotionally they were less likely to smoke cigarettes, marijuana, to use alcohol. They were less likely to attempt suicide, less likely to initiate sex at an early age. This is the world according to the adolescent. "Kids who felt a strong sense of closeness to school also did better. And by closeness to school we meant did kids perceive teachers as being fair? Did they perceive teachers as caring about them and did they have a sense of belonging, about being in a school?" It's good news that the health and wellbeing of kids still lie very much in the hands of local families, schools and communities.NHPSA has committed itself to reestablishing a society where "all children in Australia will belong to school communities which are committed to promoting lifelong learning, health and wellbeing." Dr Don Edgar suggested the way forward, saying that there "are opportunities for schools (in partnership with other organisations) to build a healthy community through new forms of cooperation and partnership, instead of harking back to days and ways now gone forever". Our NT Council of Government School Organisations (COGSO) presented a blueprint paper at the conference entitled "Healthy, Collaborative School Communities: parents, students, staff, the principal and the wider school community working together". COGSO's concept has been adopted by the Australian Council of State School Organisations (ACSSO), and through its thinking and actions COGSO is now seen nationally as a leader towards a better education system.The schools of the future must become community centres. Health, welfare and children's services, counselling and vocational training services, and parent support services need to be integrated into these community learning centres. Dr Edgar suggested that instead of running a Maths night for parents, schools should be the centre from where the adult community is offered courses on such things as what happens if your child gets into trouble with the police, marriage counselling, better sexual relationships, how to handle a family now. We heard of a community school that stayed open and active six days a week, from 7am to 10.30 pm. The wonderful community response in Alice Springs to end of year school concerts and ceremonies indicates that we do want to participate in education and celebrate with our children. Yet underlying problems such as a teachers' stress, students' disillusionment and accompanying antisocial behaviour and drug abuse, dysfunctional family life and marriage breakdown, racial tension and negative peer pressure are savagely impacting on our schools, not only here but right across Australia. However, within NHPSA and COGSO we have hope for a brighter future.
JUNE'S GEMS. Column by June Tuzewski
Landcare is currently the fastest growing environmental movement in Australia with the number of groups having increased by 25 per cent across the country during the last year, to 4250. This number includes 40 per cent of the nation's farmers who are often depicted in the media as unsympathetic to such groups.March is National Landcare Month. In Alice Landcare month is supported by a significant number of government departments and community organisations, including the Alice Springs Water Action Group (ASWAG), of which I am a member. ASWAG is funded by the Power & Water Authority and gives them advice on local water conservation issues. The Cut-the-Lawn program at Braitling School will feature in a public display during Landcare Month. ASWAG has been able to extend this program to a number of other local schools due to generous funding from PAWA. Work at these schools will commence as the weather cools down. With half the town's water supply from Roe Creek Borefield currently being used on our gardens, it does not make sense to waste water on unused lawn.
Anti-social behaviour and alcohol-related incidents continue to concern all sections of the community. Whilst the majority of licensed establishments are extremely well run, we have a situation where a few outlets tarnish the reputation of their industry and our town.In this instance I am not talking about take-away but those establishments whose patrons lurch out onto the streets. Not only do we have "no walk" zones in this town, we are getting to the stage of "no drive" zones, as drivers take detours because of the risk of injuring some obviously intoxicated person who staggers into the road in front of them.The townspeople are heartily sick of it. The long, hot summer may have made drinkers more thirsty. It has also made the locals far less tolerant.The People's Alcohol Action Group seem to have lost momentum. The public focus has been on the Tyeweretye Club's application for a take-away licence. Meanwhile certain establishments appear to have become lazy about serving alcohol in a responsible manner. Individuals should be responsible for their own actions and this includes drinkers. However, there is a duty of care and Licensees are required under the Liquor Act to ensure that neither they nor their staff serve intoxicated people.Overseas, successful legal action has been pursued by individuals where an accident or alcohol-related incident has occurred. The event may have happened on or after leaving not only licensed premises, but also private functions. The person bringing the case to court is the individual who alleges that the staff of the premises, or host at the function, continued to serve them alcohol when they had obviously consumed enough. While this has not happened in the NT, some court cases in NSW are heading in a similar direction. There are lessons in this for us all. Few complaints are received by the NT Liquor Commission from the public. I believe this is because the wider community does not frequent many of the bars where serving practices may be questionable. Hence enforcing the Liquor Act in these circumstances falls back on surveillance by Police and Liquor Commission Staff.NT Liquor Commission Chairman, Peter Allan, has substantially increased the number and frequency of inspections by his staff across the Territory since his appointment 18 months ago.The Commission has got tougher. It is hard to imagine that until six years ago, there had not been one suspension of trading hours of a licensed establishment anywhere in the Territory (when a breach of the Act had occurred).However, some managers of local drinking establishments seem to be blind as to what is happening in their own bars. Pressure needs to be brought to bear to ensure that these establishments do not take undue advantage of their customers.Locals who do see incidents which they believe may breach the Liquor Act should contact Deputy Registrar, Rosemary Ellis on 8951 5000 about making a formal complaint. You will need names, contact details if possible, date and time of the incident.We must all do our bit. Change will not occur unless we do.
Last week I spoke about the International Women's Day Breakfast to be held this Friday morning, February 6. If you haven't yet reserved a place Janette (8951 5880) may still just be able to squeeze you in.Other activities to mark the day will take place on Friday afternoon at the Alice Plaza Shopping Centre. Community groups and other organisations are gathering together with stalls and information about their services. Centrelink will be giving a short talk about their new role and function at 2.15pm.Many traders in the Plaza will be offering discounts and when you finally want to sit down for that welcome cuppa, Zacs will provide you a Devonshire Tea for only $2.
FROM CATTLE STATION WIFE TO ECO TOURISM OPERATOR
A group of English farmers are coming to tea.In the kitchen of the Bond Springs homestead Jan Heaslip, son Ben and assistant Georgie Neal resolve to seat them inside. Outside it's 40 degrees in the shade, taxing for the locals let alone for fresh arrivals from the Northern hemisphere.There are jugs of cool rainwater on the table, the urn is boiling, the muffins are still warm from the oven.Suddenly there's a thrilled cry: "Oh, you've got an Aga!"The first Englishwoman through the door has recognised the Heaslips' enormous cooking range as identical to her own: "I never thought I'd see one of those out here.""When I proposed, she agreed on condition I get her an Aga," quipped her husband, all the way from Staffordshire.The ice was instantly broken, as the group settled in around the kitchen and in the adjoining sitting room.Bond Springs Station is some 20 kilometres north of Alice Springs. Its proximity to the town has brought many visitors, official and otherwise, over the years. In 1989, her children's schooling completed, and with it her long involvement with the Isolated Children's Parents' Association, Jan decided to turn her experience as a host, into a business. What she offers is a glimpse of station life and history, the bush with its animals, plants and silence, topped off with home-cooking, and guestroom or cottage accommodation at the homestead if required. To this can be added mini-safaris and town tours. It's simple but it works. Jan's been busy since Christmas, with a constant stream of people either staying for a few days or coming on a day trip. The majority are from America, with the rest mostly from Europe and England."It's so different to what most people have been experiencing when they're travelling," says Jan. "It's about qualities, rather than commodities."This group is not typical, but in their short visit they prove Jan's point. They're after something real, not a contrived "product". They are, all 26 of them, farmers, mostly in semi-retirement. Their trip has been organised by specialised operators, one in England called Farm Tours, the other, Agritours, based in Armidale, New South Wales. They're looking at Bond Springs with the keen eyes of professionals. What they see is a picture of striking contrast.They can hardly believe that just to get to the homestead you travel six and a half kilometres from the station boundary.One of them, a Scotsman, runs 400 dairy cows on 1100 acres, 500 of his own, 600 rented. In a good year Bond Springs can run a herd of up to 3,000 breeding cows. On average they get about 1000 calves each year, on 1500 square kilometres!The Scotsman runs 80 head of cattle per square kilometre, 40 times the Heaslips' two.A couple from central England run a mixed farm on 1300 acres. It supports three employees and their families, the couple, their son and his wife.The smallest holding amongst the group appears to be 150 acres, again a mixed farm which supports a couple.Bond Springs supports six to seven people in the summer, with another three to four joining them in the winter months, when they're busy mustering and the tourist season is at its height.The associated abattoirs, Bond Beef Traders, employs an average of 6-10 slaughtermen, boners and packers.The bottom line is water, of course. The English farmers may irrigate, but the water is only 10 feet down, just below the tree roots.At Bond Springs, where they haven't seen good rain since February last year, and the average rainfall is only 10 inches a year, water must be pumped from 150 feet down. Bores in the paddocks have to be checked every two days in the summer months. Ben's father, Grant, makes a check flight in his Cessna across the entire station at least once a week.Some of the visitors' properties wouldn't be big enough for a Cessna to take off on.After tea, Ben takes the visitors to the cattle yards.On the way, they pass the classroom where he, his brother and two sisters did their primary schooling with the School of the Air. "It was hard to concentrate," says Ben, "when there was so much happening outside that was more interesting than books."The station encompassed his whole life: "As a kid, I would only go to town once or twice a year, there was nothing of interest there for me."The farmers could hardly have a better guide. Many of them have either run beef cattle in the past, or know someone who has. There has been a lot of suffering and a lot of controversy in the wake of "mad cow disease" in Britain. Raising beef is a subject about which everyone has something to say. The majority of Bond Springs cattle are range fed, but they do have a grain feedlot. "Do you not give them any hormones?" asks one."No hormones," answers Ben decisively. "We're well south of the tic line here because it's so dry, and there's no disease problem. The station has been clean of brucellosis and tuberculosis, the main problems for Territory cattle, for 10 years.""What weights do you finish them off at?""The demand in Australia is for 180-200 kilograms, finished live weight. The live shipment market takes finished weights of 150 to 250 kilograms. Older bullocks and steers will be sold at 400 to 500 kilograms on the hook."Older beef is not in demand at the moment, but in the 80s the market lent towards older beef, which it took six to eight years to finish off.""Do you mix breeds?""No. We run only Poll Herefords - unless anything from the neighbours pushes through."Everyone laughs."In Australia the best money is for a straight breed, but in the live shipment market it's not really an issue, they go by the weight.""We're finding the flies such a nuisance," says one lady. "Are they a problem for the cattle?""No, they seem to be able to use their tails to deal with them. Flies are mainly a problem for sheep in the south of Australia."The questions go on: they want to know about the cost of labour, and is it difficult to get; the size of paddocks, the number of watering points; every last detail about branding, castration, the behaviour of "entires" in the grain feedlot; where the stock bulls come from.Ben, who spends half his time doing stock work, answers them all, slowly and steadily. It seems to be a particularly satisfying experience for everyone.Jan says her Brolga Award winning business is a "cottage industry", not highly significant in the overall operation of the station, but "it is certainly a help".For visitors, clamouring for authentic experiences, it's a refreshing alternative to bland mass tourism.
OLIVE PINK NATURE PARK: A JEWEL IN THE HEART OF THE ALICE.
While there's a surge of new blood on the Board of Trustees of the Olive Pink Botanic Garden, the basics haven't changed: there's still not enough money in the kitty.The garden employs one full-time curator and a half-time horticulturalist who can barely keep abreast of the maintenance of the garden, let alone build on its marvellous potential.Newly-appointed trustee Charlie Carter (pictured) says funding has remained "static and at a very inadequate level", with the garden's financial position progressively getting worse over the last five years.The garden has received $41,000 per annum for the last two financial years from the Northern Territoy Government , making up another $20,000 from fund-raising and donations. The trustees, under retired Chair of the Board, Simon Smith, commissioned consultants to prepare a five year plan for development of the garden.This has been completed and forwarded to Tim Baldwin, Minister for Housing and Local Government, whose department funded its preparation.While details of the recommendations are not yet public, Mr Carter says that the consultants' report confirmed what everyone already suspected: "The staff are so busy just keeping the gates open, they don't have time to apply for grants or lobby for additional funding."And despite community support of fund-raising efforts and the donations made by visitors, without extra dollars we can't go forward."Along with Mr Smith, former trustees Warren Serone, Steve McAlpin and Stuart Traynor have gone. Mark Richardson is now the new Chair of the Board.Mr Carter and Gretchin Cole will soon be joined by a third new appointee to work with ongoing trustees Diana Hobbs, Trevor Hobbs and Pamela Ditton."In common with the biggest botanic gardens in the land, the primary usage of Olive Pink is passive recreation," says Mr Carter."People come here for social gatherings and relaxation, to enjoy its arid zone ambience, the shade, the birds, the quiet."We'd like to see that usage increase. It will never be a major drop-off for coach-loads of tourists, and we don't want that. "But we would like the community to be more aware of what it has to offer and to use it more."At present, the gates are open from 10am to 6pm, seven days a week. The trustees are confident that longer opening hours, at least from sunrise to sunset would draw in new visitors.Currently, about half of the visitors are locals, and half tourists. The trustees see good scope for increasing usage by special interest groups such as students, conservationists and cultural tourists. Annie Meyer Hill within the garden is a site of significance to Arrernte people and from its crest visitors can see most of the significant sites of Alice Springs.The garden has the added attraction of celebrating the life, work and legacy of that unique character in Central Australian history Olive Pink."We don't see a new direction for the park," says Mr Carter."We simply want more appropriate funding to do the same things, more of them and better."
ALLAN PAGE: ONE OF OUR GREAT VOLUNTEERS.
"In the 70s and early 80s if you had a working bee, so many people would turn up there wouldn't be enough work for them all to do."Such a situation is almost unthinkable now, but "super-volunteer" Allan Page is philosophical about it: "These days you have to chase people a bit more because there are so many more activities around."Allan, whose dedication was recognised two years ago with Centralian of the Year and the Territory-wide Eric Johnston High Achiever awards, spends most of his spare time coaching young gymnasts at the Youth Centre.There most of Allan's fellow volunteers are parents: "I don't have any family in town so I've got the time, but the parents can have two or three kids, with each kid involved in a couple of different sports. It's easy for them to get overloaded and for an organisation to start over-using them. Then they'll start to lose interest. "It's probably best for the organisation if people say at the outset ÔI've got some time to spare but not a lot, an hour or two hours a week.' Most clubs could come up with something they want done for that amount of time."What does a volunteer get out of their commitment?Says Allan: "I like working with kids in the primary school age group. Their object in life is fun, so you need to keep their activities not too serious."He also says that you never know where volunteering can lead you.He first went to the Youth Centre to play badminton as a 17 year old in 1971, freshly arrived from Adelaide. From lending a hand around the place he eventually became a supervisor of the boys' gymnastic group, started coaching, judging, and in recent years was team manager of Territory gymnastics teams in interstate competitions on three occasions. He also played a part in introducing roller-skating and in the general management of the Youth Centre.Another interest that has similarly "snow-balled" has been motor sports: "In the early Finkes I went down to pick up the broken bikes. That flowed into doing the sweep vehicle for off-road racing and I started taking a few photos. "I could take photos right round the track, seeing the racing at the best places and doing something at the same time. It's to the benefit of both the club and myself; the drivers can get action photos for their sponsors and I enjoy it."Over the last couple of years I've had photos published in a couple of calendars. So, one thing leads to another."Allan says he's not a good spectator. Watching events at the Speedway is fun, but being involved is better. He's been assistant starter there for some ten years.How important, in Allan's view, is the role of the Youth Centre? "I guess we keep normal kids normal. If they have something to do, it keeps them out of trouble. It's like preventative medicine."There are often complaints that young people in Alice haven't enough to do. What does Allan think?"The number of activities has grown enormously. In fact, the Youth Centre introduced a lot of them to Alice Springs, such as Indoor Cricket. It took off pretty well, when the rules were still being developed. Then, after four or five years it moved out to its own premises. Volleyball was also originally played at the Youth Centre."The younger age group don't really know what they want , they want what they see. If someone comes up with a good idea, we should try it and it may or may not work. We need to experiment with different activities and ideas. Some take off, others go well for a while before they drop off."There's no formula and new things are coming up all the time. Two years ago if anyone spoke to you about an Internet Lounge, you would have been scratching your head."So, with ideas and effort, including from the young people themselves, Allan thinks there is plenty of potential for keeping busy and having fun in town.
STRANGENESS OF OTHER CULTURES. Review by KIERAN FINNANE.
The romance of travel and the strangeness of other cultures as well as their fascination, are the subjects of Perfume and Dust , an exhibition by Cait Wait at Araluen's In Transit gallery.Wait is a former resident of Central Australia, who left the stamp of her brilliant palette and decorative sense on the early works of Keringke Arts (at Santa Teresa), of which she was the first coordinator and organising force.From there she went, as a Volunteer Abroad for the Overseas Service Bureau, to the Republic of Kiribati in the Pacific where she stayed, working as a teacher, for three years.The subject matter of the paintings derive from both environments, with a surrealist vision dominating the Kiribati works. The exhibition has been sponsored by the Overseas Service Bureau "as an opportunity to impart a message of cultural understanding and international friendship."Most works are for sale, including a number of painted coconut shells.Pictured is Journey Painting III 95-96, a montage of events and images from Wait's diary of those years.Shows until April 4.