Fireworks as incentive to increase indigenous school attendance

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children across Australia will be encouraged to attend school, thanks to City of Sydney Council committing $6,000 to trial the ‘Attendance at School’ Incentive
Program. Three children will be chosen by their primary school Principal based on an excellent attendance record, and be given the chance to watch the 2012 NYE fireworks from Dawes Point.

According to Council, choosing indigenous children from year four to six will “help instil the value of going to school every day, before the students start the critical phase of high school.”

Greens Councillor Irene Doutney, who seconded the proposal, said: “Many [Aboriginal] children come from dysfunctional families where there is little encouragement to be involved in the white
education system. “When people have been repressed for two hundred years, it’s very hard for them to embrace the system that is stigmatising them.”

The incentive will be trialled at Glebe Public School. Principal Vicki Pogulis said: “33 per cent of our students are indigenous and, while most of them have minimum attendance issues, a small percentage need encouragement to attend school on regular basis. [The trial is] an excellent incentive which supplements other attendance programs.”

Plunkett Street Public School is another Sydney school taking part.

The incentive originated when former NSW policewoman Genevieve Delves was volunteering in Queensland and befriended Delwyn “DJ” Gothachalkenin from the Aurukun community. She promised to take him to the 2011 NYE fireworks if he attended all his classes. Ms Delves said: “He went to school every day and ended up getting an award at the end of the year by the Acting Premier of Queensland, because his literacy and numeracy standards were excellent.”

Lord Mayor Clover Moore MP saw the merits of the idea in improving school attendance in Aboriginal communities. She said: “Upon hearing of DJ’s commitment to achieving his goal, I gave my support to expand this idea into an ongoing program, both in Aurukan and here in Sydney.” Aurukun Primary School is the third and final school in the trial.

Currently, the trial caters to a small group: what about other communities who could use similar incentives? In response, Ms Doutney said: “Many other children may struggle in the school
system, but for most cultural and migrant groups education is highly valued. The problems of total alienation are not as pronounced and long standing [as in Aboriginal communities].”

In the future, Ms Doutney would like to see the program expanded to include remote communities, young people with disabilities and refugee children.