Australia's Bilingual dilemma

In Lajamanu, a remote Aboriginal community about 900 kilometres south of Darwin there are only a remaining traditional elders and their language, Warlpiri, is one of only about 20 Aboriginal languages still spoken by Indigenous children.

But that number could soon shrink even further. Last week, national literacy and numeracy test results showed the Northern Territory once again lagged behind the rest of the country.

And the Northern Territory Government has been accused of plunging Indigenous children into further disadvantage through a mandatory policy for teachers to speak English in remote classrooms.

In October last year, the Government decided to slash bilingual education hours in eight public schools, blaming the policy for the poor educational outcomes in the remote communities where the program was in place. Under the new approach, teachers must speak in English for the first four hours of each school day, meaning there is only one hour left in the afternoon for teaching Indigenous language and culture.

Some teachers say the approach is misguided because there are many factors - not just bilingual education - affecting school results, ranging from low school attendance to serious health issues.

An associate professor in bilingual education and applied linguistics at Charles Darwin University, Dr Brian Devlin, visited the Territory's former education minister, Marion Scrymgour, after she introduced the policy. He said she admitted the policy was made too quickly.

However the former principal of the Lajamanu school, Christine Nicholls, says there is proof bilingual education has been effective.

"In 1989, in both year three and year five, Lajamanu school topped all the Aboriginal schools in English literacy," she said.

"And ... they were only the kids who'd been through the bilingual program."

She says learning in traditional language is something very important for Indigenous communities.

"It's their original instrument of expression, their own language," she said.

"And it's also a matter of common sense that in all education, whether you're teaching people of five, nine or 90, you've got to go from the known to the unknown."

The Government says it is not prepared to back down on its new approach because it has to try a new way of teaching in order for children to meet national testing benchmarks.

"We're not banning the speaking of Indigenous languages, the teaching of Indigenous cultures in our schools," said Chief Minister Paul Henderson, who is also Education Minister.

"What we are saying very explicitly is that we should have the same expectations for these kids to get to benchmark in years three, five, seven and nine along with all other kids."