(Transcript from World News Australia Radio)
In a bid to improve Indigenous school attendance rates, the Abbott government says it will spend $28 million over two years employing hundreds of truancy officers in remote communities.
But, as Thea Cowie reports, the plan is being met with caution.
(Click on audio tab above to hear full item)
Indigenous Affairs Minister Nigel Scullion says if it wasn't for truancy officers, he would not have gone to school and got the education that's allowed him to represent the Northern Territory in the Senate.
So he says when school resumes next year, the Abbott government will employ up to 400 truancy officers in about 40 remote communities - providing around one officer for every 20 students.
Most of the schools being targeted have reported attendance rates below 70 per cent in the past five years and are in remote areas of the Northern Territory, Western Australia, Queensland, New South Wales and South Australia.
Senator Scullion has told the ABC if children aren't going to school, so-called "Attendance Supervisors" will try to change that by visiting their homes each day to find out why.
"So it might be not a good reason but a resolvable reason like no, well we missed the bus, we don't have any transport, look he's really embarrassed, doesn't want to go to school because he doesn't have the uniform because the cat ate it or whatever. The normal stuff of life. So we need to assist with the school uniform or he doesn't have a bag or he's being bullied or whatever the story is. And there's so many barriers in this case but they've been barriers that nobody seems to bother to assist the family and the parents in knocking down."
The federal government hopes the plan will also reduce unemployment in Indigenous communities, by filling the truancy officer vacancies through the Remote Jobs and Communities Program.
But the Dean of Indigenous Scholarship, Engagement and Research at the University of South Australia, Professor Peter Buckskin, says that may not be the best idea.
"Conflict could arise in terms of people seeing the government interfering into the social and family structure of communities. You don't want to have Indigenous people arguing with other Indigenous people because some people have got a job to get kids to school and other people are unemployed in the community."
Professor Buckskin is also sceptical about whether the right people can be found and properly trained by the time school resumes next year.
"I think this is quite a specific skill. It's like a social worker mentoring, dealing with complex issues, understanding dysfunctionality and how you respond to that. The people that actually are signed up be part of this 'truancy army', they would have to be highly respected people that have good moral integrity in their communities that are also contributing to the good social structure and governance of communities. It's not just trying to find an unemployed person that would be part of a community development program. "
Another criticism of the plan is that truancy officers may help improve school attendance rates, but won't necessarily improve educational outcomes.
Dr Chris Sarra is the chairman of the Stronger Smarter Institute which aims to reverse low expectations in Indigenous education.
He's told the ABC school attendance officers will only make a difference if schools are engaging.
"If they're executed in a way that is strength-based, not assuming that the problem lays entirely with the families or community and accepting that as part of it, the school has to change some things about what they do to make sure it's a school worth turning up to. It can make a difference. You know I'm optimistic and I think it could make a significant difference."
The federal Opposition's Indigenous Affairs spokesman, Shayne Neumann, says the government's plan is based on anecdote, not evidence.
He says the truancy officers won't be effective and the Coalition should continue the former Labor government's "Improving School Enrolment and Attendance through Welfare Reform Measure", known as SEAM.
"The truancy army of forty have no powers, other than persuasion. He says he doesn't want to threaten parents and provide them with any punitive measure, he doesn't want to suspend students, he doesn't want to punish students for bad behaviour. Surely the carrying out of the SEAM program with the consultation with stakeholders, the empirical evidence and the evaluation in the New Year and the supposed bipartisan support is the way to go."
The SEAM program saw truancy officers and social workers give parents 13 weeks to improve their child's school attendance rate before their welfare payments were cut off.
Indigenous Affairs Minister Nigel Scullion says the Coalition's plan is not about taking punitive measures, but if truancy officers' efforts fail, compliance measures may apply.
The government says it wants to expand the program to other communities when more money becomes available.
