‘Where is the accountability?’: Indigenous children bear the brunt of Australia’s unequal education system

Government funding for schools in the Northern Territory has fallen in real terms since the Gonski review into Australian education. Photograph: JohnnyGreig/Getty Images

When schoolteacher April drives past one of the local private schools in Alice Springs, what sticks out are the green, manicured lawns. When she looks out of the window at one of the public secondary schools where she teaches, she sees a brown, weed-choked oval.

“It’s like a metaphor for public education in this town,” says April, who has asked that her real name not be published. “It’s parched, it’s neglected.”