The name is absent

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Multiculturalism only became problematic when it found issue
in real life in structural differentiation.

The 1978 Schools Commission Report, having pointed out the
problems inherent in the implementation of the policy, addressed
itself to migrant and multicultural education chiefly in terms
of language - it centred its comments around the teaching of
English as a second language and the teaching of community languages,
chiefly as a means of maintaining identity.

With regard to Aboriginal education (7.43^ the Commission
pointed to the incredibly low number of Aboriginal students enrolled
in Colleges of Advanced Education or Universities in 1977 - a
total of S3 for the whole of Australia. They saw as
... not unrelated to this failure to derive full
benefit in an alien culture and on its terms, [the
fact that] most school syllabuses, value systems
and operational patterns both fail to reinforce
the group identity of black students or to utilise
the experiences and traditions students bring.

It is noteworthy that the Ccmmission encouraged and supported
group identity for Aborigines and saw this as important for enabling
Aboriginal people to face, in the school, an alien culture and
derive benefit from the school system of this alien world. It
is also noteworthy that it encouraged the foundation of independent
schools where students would not feel exposed to alienating values
and experiences.

The Commission (7.44) reinforced its earlier decision to
support and foster the pre-conditions for more decisive Aboriginal
participation in education at all levels. One effort had already
borne fruit. The Aboriginal Consultative group set up by
the Commission in 1975 had become, in 1978, the National Aboriginal
Education Committee operating in the Commonwealth Department
of Education, in order to be able to make policy inputs across
the whole portfolio.

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