Principles
The NT Greens believe that:
Indigenous people, whether living in remote communities or in urban settings, have a right to education in their own culture and a right to learn through their own languages. Indigenous languages contain a wealth of culture, knowledge and history and their maintenance and revitalisation is essential.
Multilingual education, delivered by and for Indigenous people, is important for maintaining health, well-being and cultural identity. When properly implemented, it is the most efficient and productive way of reaching academic outcomes; acquiring proficiency in the English language; and preparing Indigenous people to participate in the wider community.
Non-Indigenous students should be given opportunities to learn Indigenous languages by incorporating Indigenous languages into the mainstream languages curriculum.
Measures
The NT Greens will:
Reinstate the multilingual programs that were in place in the NT from 1973-2008 and ensure the growth of further multilingual school programs where English is not a first language for the majority of students.
Implement further multilingual opportunities for all Indigenous students in all government schools.
Establish a dedicated Multilingual Education Work Unit in the NT Department of Education, to coordinate the development of resources for multilingual programs and support schools in the implementation of their programs.
Support independent schools to develop and implement multilingual programs, while ensuring that the control of their implementation remains with the communities.
Implement a long-term plan to train Indigenous educators and academics to increase the ratio of Indigenous to non-Indigenous staff in multilingual schools, and ensure they can take the lead in the classroom
Provide teachers and principals of multilingual schools with ongoing professional development opportunities in multilingual education.
Provide a funding guarantee to Batchelor Institute of Indigenous Tertiary Education (BIITE) to expand its training programs for Indigenous teachers in multilingual pedagogies.
Ensure that Indigenous multilingual teachers can access qualifications recognised by NT Department of Education and the Teacher Registration Board, and that they are paid the same as non-Indigenous teachers.