Ignorant government policies and practices have failed Indigenous children and caused widening disparity between students, Victoria's education minister says.
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Deputy Premier Ben Carroll faced the state's Yoorrook Justice Commission on Friday, as it continues to examine injustices against Indigenous Victorians.
The minister admitted that "ignorant or deliberate" government policies and practices had created gaps between First Nations and other Victorians, in his opening statement to the commission.
Mr Carroll said schools played a significant role, since colonisation, in reinforcing racist perceptions and stereotypes about First Peoples and perpetuating false narratives about colonial history.
"While quality education has been described as the great equaliser, the history of this state is littered with examples where schools have been used as tools of segregation, exclusion and oppression of First Peoples," he said.
Societal misconceptions about Aboriginal people and their children not wanting an education had continued to lead to them being overlooked at school, the commission was told.
Counsel assisting Tony McAvoy said several witnesses had told the commission they or their parents had been "denied access to scoring past very low grades in primary school".
"That denial of education still has effects on the Victorian First Peoples," he said.
The minister noted the rate of Indigenous kids going to kindergarten was at 100 per cent.
He also agreed with the proposition that as those students reached grade three they began dropping off before the disparity widened again once they reached grade nine.
Racism had led to lowered expectations for Indigenous student's educational aspirations and capabilities, he said.
Mr McAvoy said First Nations children thrived when they were at home, by their parents and had access to Aboriginal community-based preschool and kindergarten.
"But it is once they reach school age and enter a system that is not particularly designed for them, their academic achievement drops off," he said.
Despite a government push for self-determination, commissioner Travis Lovett said Indigenous culture still was not reflected in the school curriculum, with 1529 out of 1566 public schools not teaching an Indigenous language.
"They come to school and after the smoking ceremony and the welcome to country, they go back into that societal thing where they're not learning our people's way," he said.
Mr Lovett said a lack of cultural education can lead to negative beliefs about Indigenous people, as he revealed how his daughter was told she was "only a little bit Aboriginal" at school.
"We tell her all the time she's Gunditjmara, and we shouldn't have to shy away, no matter what colour or tone our skin is, whether our people are very dark or not, it's irrelevant," he said.
In 2023, there were 69 complaints made to the education department about racism from Indigenous parents, carers or students which was up from 34 in 2020 and 19 in 2016.
Last term, about 30 per cent of Indigenous students in Victorian schools reported experiencing racism, the commission was told.
Aboriginal staff working in the schooling system have told of regular and ongoing instances of racism directed at themselves, students and fellow Aboriginal workers, commissioner Maggie Walter said.
"None of them had any confidence that the system would back them, or that if they took a complaint, anything would happen," she said.
Mr Carroll acknowledged the problem and promised an independent survey for Aboriginal staff working in the system to reveal how deeply ingrained the problem is and ways to make schools safer.
Australian Associated Press
