At benchmark? Evaluating the Northern Territory bilingual education program

Abstract

The Northern Territory (NT) bilingual program set out a range of goals to provide remote Indigenous communities a bilingual, biliterate and bicultural education and achieved a range of outstanding successes. Yet, when the NT government closed the program in 2008, these achievements were not recognised. The only measure of the program’s success was the National Assessment Program – Literacy and Numeracy (NAPLAN) test results for the Northern Territory that year. This paper looks at a range of criteria for evaluating the bilingual program, such as the stated goals listed of the program and those articulated by Indigenous people.