Education Union warns of 'Nazi' language ban
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The Education Union says changes to bilingual education are having a negative impact (ABC TV: ABC TV)
The Northern Territory Education Union says local Indigenous languages have already been banned at some of the Territory's bilingual schools.
The Territory Government has made this year a transition phase towards a new bilingual policy which will make it compulsory for schools to teach only in English for the first four hours of the day from next year.
The union's president Rod Smith says he has had complaints that the policy is already in place, and it is not working.
"Staff attendance has been poor, especially with the assistant teachers, and one long-standing assistant teacher (has) resigned," he said.
"These are only the ones we hear about. This is absolutely the worst scenario."
Mr Smith says the Government is not offering any transition period, and Indigenous staff have been banned from speaking in the local language.
"Some of the schools and their principals have taken it on themselves to become almost the Nazi language police," he said.
"It's enforcing draconian measures, and at a time when we're trying to enforce or get kids to come to school, this sort of policy is going to work in the reverse."
The Territory's Education Minister has issued a statement saying some schools will be ready to adopt the new model sooner than others.
Paul Henderson says schools are undertaking the changes at their own pace, and the Government is working with them.
The executive director of Territory Schools, Alan Green, says it was made very clear that bilingual schools were expected to start teaching the first four hours in English from the start of this year.
"The notion that there's no transition is absolutely incorrect," he said.
"We had support staff in every bilingual school at the end of last year, working through with them a plan about how they would go about implementing this, from the beginning of the year."
Mr Green says full support is being offered to help with the transition.
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