SWAN Hill’s Koorie school is set to close at the end of the year, but the principal said schools shouldn’t be blamed for a failed experiment.
A review of the four Victorian Koorie Pathways Schools found students were not attending often enough, attaining poor results and the schools were not providing value for taxpayers’ money.
Above all, the report found the schools were failing their key objective — to engage wayward Indigenous students and reintroduce them to mainstream education.
Payika College principal John Brookshaw said the schools had received the blame when the Baillieu Government and its policy was at fault.
“They didn’t ask or want our input; we’re just caught up in the political stoush.”
Mr Brookshaw agreed with the report’s finding that “focusing on Koorie culture as the basis of engagement, or even the key strategy among others, was not sufficient for re-engagement”.
“We told them at the beginning it would never work,” he said.
“Certainly culture is a strong part of improving their self esteem, but at the end of the day it’s not the only thing; sometimes, getting a licence, a job will re-engage kids.”
He admitted attendance rates were poor — just nine of 18 students were at school yesterday — but he said it was not the school’s fault.
“Think of it this way, these kids have an attendance rate of zero before coming to his school, and we’ve got that up to 50, 60 per cent.
“What is really saying is that mainstream schools are failing our kids.”
While the announcement had been expected for eight weeks, announcing it through media before telling students and teachers was disrespectful, Mr Brookshaw said.
“They don’t even think of the ramifications on the kids and our staff,” he said.
The two full time teachers and one part time teacher at the school, excluding Mr Brookshaw, are now applying for vacancies around the district. Others had already staff left when the closure became very likely.
“A lot of the staff will be looking for vacancies in the district, with strong family ties in the region.”
Mr Brookshaw said the school would employ a skeleton staff next year to transition to “whatever happens”.
“The minister said he would look at another setting for flexible learning — that’s the only thing that will help these kids to go back to school.
“One student had enrolled only this week after no longer being accepted at Swan Hill College.
He said the claim that the school did not deliver value for money was unfair, with many other small schools in the region with similar staffing and funding arrangements.
“Within 150 kms there are 10 schools with less than 10 students. How can you close these schools and not close those?”
