The Literacy question in remote Indigenous Australia. CAEPR Topical Issue 06/2009.

Public commentary commonly attributes blame to inadequate teaching, poor resourcing of remote schools or even lack of parental support for school attendance. In a recent review of education in the Northern Territory (NT) Dr Chris Sarra, from the Indigenous Education Leadership Institute in Queensland, accused NT educators of expecting less of their Indigenous students and inadvertently creating an underclass (ABC News April 13 2009). Why? Because the 2008 national English literacy and numeracy benchmarking tests indicated that the NT had some of the highest illiteracy rates in the country.