Australian Human Rights Commission Australia and the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination (ICERD), Shadow report to the CERD Committee – 8 July 2010 38. Bilingual education is considered to be one way to keep Indigenous language and culture alive. 26 Of the 9 581 schools that exist in Australia today, nine schools are bilingual schools, instructing students in their first Indigenous language. Evidence from an Australian study demonstrates marginally better English literacy outcomes for students from bilingual schools at the end of primary school compared with students from non-bilingual schools with similar languages, demography and contact histories. 27 39. In 2009 the Northern Territory Government implemented a policy which makes it mandatory for schools to begin each school day with four hours of English literacy. The policy is likely to dismantle bilingual education and potentially endanger some of the remaining Indigenous languages. Recommendation 16: That the Government take urgent action to support the reinstatement of bilingual education approaches in schools, and safeguard the future of bilingual education through binding agreements with state and territory governments and the provision of ongoing resources to support its implementation. 28 40. In 2007 COAG committed to halve the gap in employment outcomes between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians within a decade. In February 2009, COAG signed the National Partnership Agreement for Indigenous Economic Participation to significantly improve opportunities for Indigenous people to engage in private and public sector jobs. 29 41. The Australian Government put in place reforms for the cessation of the Community Development Employment Projects (CDEP) 30 program in urban and major regional locations and the expansion of Structured Training Employment Projects brokerage services as an alternative as of 1 July 2009. 31 The Commission’s concerns with these reforms have included: 42. • a number of productive community roles and projects may cease to continue where these cannot be transformed into mainstream employment opportunities • a risk that Indigenous peoples become permanently isolated from the labour market in urban and regional areas • a risk that overall unemployment rates among Indigenous peoples will increase. The Commission’s concerns appear to have been unfortunately borne out as the estimates for Indigenous unemployment between 2008 and 2009 increased by 30% rising from 27 100 to 35 400. 32 13