The co-operative nature of Aborigines can adversely affect their ability to succeed in a competitive schooling system. This can be substantiated by an historical study of various native groups.Essentially, the competitive learning processes involve a participant consciously persisting in attempts to achieve superiority, i.e., a better relative position with regard to the goal than an opponent can achieve (Owens, 1982, p.l), while the co-operative form of learning involves students interacting to achieve a mutually shared goal. It is not the aim of this work, however, to conclude on the merits of each of these educational instruments. Nevertheless the defence of the competitive system of learning in relation to Aborigines cannot be upheld on inherited or genetic grounds. As a result, most of the arguments that follow discuss the inadequacies of our present competitive system and its inability to cope with cultures that are dependent on co-operative means of behaviour.

Education as a form of initiation has severely affected Aboriginal children as they endeavour to live in ‘two worlds’.Education involves the initiation of a child into society. At an early age a child attends school where he or she learns attitudes, values and beliefs that are seen as desirable.Australia’s early white settlers saw that the Aborigines had no buildings and no formal institutions, this led them to draw a distorted view of Aboriginal education. Coming from the European situation where classrooms, boarding schools, and university buildings represented learning, they concluded that Aborigines were completely without any system of education.