Rules which require teachers in the Northern Territory to conduct classes only in English have come under fire in submissions to a federal parliamentary inquiry into language learning in indigenous communities across the country.

A report published on the government's About the House website says that submissions to the inquiry have reported community criticisms of the Northern Territory's policy. The inquiry set up by the House of Representatives Standing Committee on Aboriginal Torres Strait Islander Affairs is investigating the benefits of recognising indigenous languages, the contribution they make in helping to close the gap and the advantages of including indigenous languages in early education.

Last week Education Review reported that the NT Education Minister, Chris Burns, had refused to back down on the territory's controversial English-only literacy policy, recently releasing a clarified but fundamentally unchanged version of the original policy. Dr Brian Devlin, a bilingual education expert from Charles Darwin University told ER the policy did not reflect a significant change in the government's opposition to bilingual education.

While the new draft policy explicitly acknowledged the place of spoken indigenous languages in the classroom, the policy did not guarantee any formal support for schools wanting to run an indigenous biliteracy program during school time. Instead, the revised policy introduced a series of conditions that must be met before permission to run a biliteracy program is granted, including sufficient staffing numbers and available and cost-effective learning and teaching resources.

Devlin said the document relied upon schools and their communities to make individual representations to the department, at a time when despondency and student disengagement was very high. The original policy was first implemented in response to poor attendance and literacy rates. However, since 2009, the former bilingual schools have seen a significant drop in attendance – some for the first time falling below 50 per cent this year.

"This document has removed any possibility of indigenous literacy programs running in school time unless these various conditions are satisfied and the director of performance gives permission," said Devlin.

The revised policy was also silent on the role of indigenous teachers and how to strengthen the indigenous teaching force through training, he said. "If you cut out opportunities for vernacular language literacy you actually remove the possibility of the bilingual program conferring any real advantages to students," said Devlin.

The compulsory first four hours in English policy first implemented in 2009 has been the subject of intense public debate and a human rights challenge by Aureyonga School. It has been under internal review since the end of December 2010.

The revised policy has also fallen short of reinstating support for a biliteracy approach until the end of year 2, as was stated in a revised policy document released by the department on December 29 last year but removed 10 days later. It is understood the initial policy document, titled Literacy for Both Worlds had the backing of the department's CEO, Gary Barnes, and was consistent with the concessions granted to Areyonga school and Shepherdson College but was removed at the request of the minister.

The release of the revised literacy framework on August 31, some eight months after the Literacy for Both Worlds document appeared, has revealed the extent of the minister's influence in shaping the content and wording of the revised policy. The minister did not respond to questions to explain the posting and later removal of the Literacy for Both Worlds policy document, ER reported last week.

Burns reconfirmed his government's commitment to ensuring indigenous students are literate and numerate in English as a first priority. The minister has opened the revised draft framework for limited public consultation with schools and communities until October 31. However, academics and linguists with an interest in the development of the policy have been mobilising to share information and publicly debate the policy in coming weeks.

The House of Reps inquiry has received 92 submissions to date and a theme running through them is criticism of the English-only policy. Dr William Fogarty and Dr Inge Kral from the ANU's Centre for Aboriginal and Economic Policy Research said in their submission that education in a young student's first language is essential for self-esteem and personal development.

"There is no evidence that learning an Indigenous first language has a negative effect on English language acquisition," the submission said. "There is no credible evidence that 'English only' remote schools perform better than bilingual schools." Fogarty and Kral also point out that indigenous systems of knowledge and practice are embedded in languages.

They want the inquiry to commission research into the link between indigenous language programs, local development and school attendance. Dr Felicity Meakins of School of Languages and Comparative Cultural Studies at UQ said that many Indigenous communities she has had contact with want their children to have good English skills but not at the expense of their indigenous heritage and identity.

"A theme which is repeated time and time again is that teaching Indigenous languages in schools strengthens Indigenous language and identity and helps achieve better competency in English language," she said.

"Many community leaders have expressed concern about the monolingual approach of the NT Department of Education, which operates from the assumption that Indigenous languages interfere with children's ability to learn English and that children need to 'let go' of their first language in order to learn English well," Meakins said according to the About the House website.

The Commonwealth Ombudsman has been tasked with providing independent oversight of the NT intervention and Closing the Gap programs. While it makes no judgment on the policy, it notes in its submission to the inquiry that it has received several complaints about concerns that indigenous language learning is being ignored in the NT.

The committee will be travelling to the Northern Territory early next year to talk with community leaders and educators. The Northern Territory government is expected to provide a whole of government response to the inquiry by the end of September.