Australia’s peak body for private schools says Indigenous boarding school students are at ‘serious risk’ as Federal funding dries up, potentially leaving thousands of students in the lurch.
Funding for the Indigenous Boarding Provider grants, which supported more than 2,300 students, was absent from the most recent Federal Budget, despite these funds being a critical support to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students from remote communities.
Independent Schools Australia (ISA), which enrols 19,299 Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students enrolled across 987 campuses, is now urgently calling on the Federal Government to provide “immediate and sustained” funding to Indigenous boarding schools to ensure these students aren’t left behind.
‘A critical setback’
ISA CEO Graham Catt said the Government had previously announced a Boarding Design Review to explore future funding mechanisms, but no outcomes have been publicly released, leaving schools in “a precarious situation”.
“This is a critical setback for these kids, their communities, and the progress we've made towards closing the education gap,” Catt said. “Funding to these schools expires at the end of this year, and there have been no outcomes announced from this review.”
Catt said the continued lack of certainty of next year’s funding is doing “a grave injustice” to Indigenous boarding schools, their staff, and the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students relying on them for an education.
Principal Brendan Franzone of Wongutha Christian Aboriginal School in WA said his school currently has 60 Indigenous boarders onsite who he says would be adversely affected by a loss of funding.
“Any loss of funding would mean the school would have to significantly supplement the boarding budget again,” Franzone said.
“This would reduce the quality of academic, cultural, social and emotional well-being and development, as well as bringing greater challenges for staff, including potential burnout and lack of staff retention.”
Yirara College in Alice Springs is facing a similar predicament. Principal Wesley Meurant said fully funded boarding plays an essential role in ‘Closing the Gap’ initiatives.
“Yirara is working hand-in-hand with the remote communities of the NT to see their young people empowered to lead into the future,” he said. “Without Yirara, this story will not happen.”
Students could face ‘a dire future’
Catt said over the last ten years, three Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander boarding schools have closed or ceased to offer boarding and warned that more could follow.
"These schools are doing much of the heavy lifting in educating some of Australia’s most disadvantaged students. If additional support is not urgently provided, more of these outstanding schools will face significant hardship, and the future for their students is dire,” he said.
“Even if a rescue funding package is announced for the next twelve months, these schools need more certainty than that, and a long-term solution must be put in place.”