Row over language teaching to Australia's aborigines
Updated
There has been a major disagreement over the teaching of indigenous languages and English at bilingual schools in the Northern Territory.
Australia's federal race discrimination commissioner and the Northern Territory's education minister have locked horns over the issue.
In an effort to improve the notoriously bad literacy and numeracy rates of Territory indigenous students, Minister Marion Scrymgour has announced that lessons will be taught in English for the first four hours at the NT's nine bilingual schools.
Some of those schools use a bilingual approach up to year 12.
Commissioner Tom Calma told a Darwin audience last night that he disagreed with the government's policy, citing a Territory Education Department report from four years ago.
"There is evidence that bilingual students do better in english reading literacies than english schools in their regions," he said.
But Minister Scrymgour says Mr Calma has ignored the fact that over the years, the government's studies have shown an overall decline in bilingual students' performance.
