In this essay, I'll make the argument that in order to break the generational cycle of welfare dependency and disadvantage in the majority of indigenous communities, government policies need to be reshaped, addressing the educational requirements of children. I'll highlight that the 2007 National Intervention Strategy has failed our country's children, with regards to teaching, preserving their language and culture. I will discuss how poor education is central to a cumulative effect upon the disadvantaged Indigenous youth and influences issues such as suicide. I will highlight that policy emphasis on social investment in the early years now shapes the construction of childhood. National policies such as 'Closing the Gap' on provision for youth has become a mainstay for efforts to reduce social inequality undoing the effects of social exclusion. (Robinson et al. 2012).
Policies aimed at ensuring children are sitting in their seats are crucial in communities where school absenteeism is over-represented. However, attendance is a necessary but insufficient condition for learning. If it is not accompanied by the holistic factors crucial to education, then welfare reforms by themselves understandably will have no positive effect. .
As per the 'Overcoming Indigenous Advantage Report Key Indicators' in 2007, it was gleaned that 21% of 15 year old Indigenous people were not engaged in education, as compared to only 5% of non-Indigenous people. In 2006 only 50% of Indigenous students were likely to complete year 12. These statistics have changed very little between 2001 and 2005 (SCRGSP, 2007). The demographics of Indigenous and non-Indigenous populations in Australia are remarkably different. The trend of Indigenous populations is increasingly younger as compared to the Indigenous population which is ageing. (AHRC, 2008),(Biddle, 2012).
The most disadvantaged Indigenous Australians live in remote areas of Australia (National Indigenous Languages Survey Report, 2005), it is these people that have been failed by all stakeholders in not developing these communities in order to reduce disadvantage in particular through education.
