NT EDUCATION CEO Ms Vicki Baylis has announced she will be retiring from her position in February 2020. The Department and NT Government will advertise for a new educational leader.

I worked in NT schools under every Education Department CEO from the time the NT Government took carriage of educational responsibilities in 1979. Every CEO is remembered for different things, for highlights and challenges occurring during his or her tenure. That adds up to a quite long list of people in the top educational position, all remembered, alas by a dwindling number of people as age takes it’s mortal toll.

There was once a proposition that the key points of educational development, including commemoration of those in the top leadership position, should be highlighted by a physical display in the Mitchell Centre. Also that this might extend to include the preservation of educational history as a page on the Department of Education website,

Alas, that notion which had been enthusiastically supported by her predecessor, was not encouraged by the present administration.

What a pity that as leaders and contributors to education in the NT move on, their times and contributions under their watch pass quickly into the annals of forgotten, unrecorded and undocumented history.

It makes for NTN Education, from a recorded point of view, being perpetually locked at Genesis 1:1 – in the beginning.