National Inquiry into Children in Immigration Detention

This statement was provided by Elvira Leaver to the National Inquiry into Children in Immigration Detention

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Elvira Leaver

Former teacher, Port Hedland IRPC

The quality of educational opportunities is very bad because the students are too traumatized to concentrate and it seems as if there is very little psychological help. There are no programs, no curriculum, no accountability to management, no education plan, no photocopier, no textbooks, no continuity in learning because teachers (in general) do not stay longer than 12 weeks, before September 2001, contract teachers could only stay for 9 weeks. A lot of students got frustrated because of that.

There is no special education for disabled children or children with learning difficulties.

School attendance is not encouraged, parents are not involved. It is not a child-friendly environment because the light needs to be on all the time because of the grills, the paint comes off the walls, desks and chairs are old and bad for the posture. No records are kept, students do not get certificates or qualifications. Reasons for that are that the school is too unorganized, there are not enough teachers and teachers usually do not stay or cannot stay long enough to built up a professional teacher-student report in order to assess the students properly. Teachers who are respected by students and who have a very good report with the students, get sacked or resign because they cannot handle all the pressure and mastering any longer that comes from officers and management.

From the 25th of March onward, [name removed] will be the only teacher for 4 classes because the second teacher did not get an extension of her 3 weeks contract. To put it in a nutshell, ACM nor DIMIA seem to care about education in Port Hedland detention centre. To me, the school seems to have an alibi function.

It is very frustrating to work and learn there!

Last Updated 10 October 2002.