According to the Australian Bureau of Statistics, there were 176,057 school students in Australia who had identified as Aboriginal at their time of enrolment in 2012. This represents an increase of 7,254 (4.3%) over the corresponding figure for 2011. These students now make up almost 5% of all school students. This figure is only for primary and secondary schools and does not take into account higher education, but I assume the number of Indigenous students enrolled in higher education should be increasing accordingly. Since indigenous communities are often located in remote areas, distance education will be key to providing a proper level of education and training for them.
In Australia, the Queensland Government formed the Indigenous Lead Centre in 2006 to ensure Indigenous peoples have access to culturally appropriate and relevant courses including distance education, course materials, and training products that enable them to fulfill their professional and personal aspirations. The Indigenous Lead Centre has also developed a variety of user-friendly e-learning resources; Internet technology like this could definitely help support students and job seekers in remote communities. However, infrastructure is the big issue among Indigenous communities and peoples. According to this article published in 2011, only 6% of residents in some remote Indigenous communities in Australia had a computer, while 80% of Australians access the Internet regularly—in some communities, as few as 2% of residents had an Internet connection. In 2011, the Australian Communications Consumer Action Network (ACCAN) started a project called Home Internet for Remote Indigenous Communities to assess the reasons for low internet take-up and use by people living in remote Indigenous communities, determine the needs of remote Indigenous communities with regard to home Internet use, and provide advice through empirical research.
Batchelor Institute of Indigenous Tertiary Education in Northern Territory, an educational institution for the tertiary education of Indigenous people of Australia, opened a new e-Learning and Research Building in 2008. This was a $2.86 million project funded by the Federal Government. Internet technology must be effectively employed to provide quality education and training to Indigenous peoples. Creating Internet access requires stable infrastructure, and an Internet development budget funding is essential to making the project come to life. It is not an easy process!
