primary

School girls and teacher at Yarrabah, 1924

from State Library of Queensland

• Vesna Verencevic said:

  Education at the Mission The mission was declared an Industrial and Reformatory Schools Act in 1865 English was the only language of instruction and all links with the children's culture were deliberately broken Children slept and learned on concrete floors and often harsh discipline Education was only 2 hours a day but often came 2nd to work The education levels were low They didn't really aim for much to come out of the education except for the Aboriginals learning white ways Sometimes if there were brighter Aboriginals they would teach them more so that they could become teachers and end up teaching at the mission when they were older Education standards were purposely low so that more attention was on obedience, discipline, work, and routine Children would go to school to be taught how to fit in with the rest of society For adults, there was limited education- often just teaching them how to read and write so that they could become servants Source: yarrabahlife.weebly.com/yarrabah-mission.html