Boarding schools for remote secondary Aboriginal learners in the Northern Territory. Smooth transition or rough ride?

After the 2014 Northern Territory Wilson Review of Indigenous education, the NT Department of Education committed resources support secondary aged students to take up boarding options. The basis for this was firstly, low retention rates of students to Year 12, and secondly, difficulties associated with providing quality secondary education in remote communities. Beyond the Review, the Department’s policy had a small evidence base. It did not know how many young people were attending boarding schools, where, how long they were attending or what the impact of the strategy would be for students or communities. In response, the Cooperative Research Centre for Remote Economic Participation’s Remote Education Systems project commissioned the Australian Council for Educational Research to uncover the missing evidence. It became apparent that finding data to fill the gap would be a challenge. Nevertheless, the project revealed findings following interviews with community stakeholders, principals and heads of boarding schools. While the research project itself cannot fill all the gaps it can offer an independent critique of a strategy designed to increase boarding school participation. It also poses questions for further research in a field where transformative impact is assumed to be positive, but where evidence for transformation is limited.