Strategies closing the gap
By Carmel Carrick
APRIL 2009
Closing the gap... Josh Mallet was one of the record number of Indigenous students who enrolled in Year 12 last year.
Josh Mallet, a first-year Education undergraduate at the University of the Sunshine Coast, was one of a record number of Indigenous students enrolled in Year 12 in Queensland in 2008.
The Deception Bay State High School graduate was one of 1840 Indigenous students enrolled in Queensland schools in Year 12 last year, a 92 per cent increase from 960 in 1999, according to recent Australian Bureau of Statistics data.
Indigenous Education and Training Assistant Director-General Terry Kearney said the increase was the result of focused Indigenous education strategies and the Queensland Government's commitment to closing the gap in outcomes for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students.
'Partners for Success has been the major policy framework informing Indigenous education in Queensland since 2000, targeting improved outcomes in attendance, retention, achievement and workforce capacity,' Mr Kearney said.
'These strategies identified the need to raise the standard for senior schooling and take on post-schooling pathways.'
There are nearly 39,000 Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students in Queensland state schools, or about eight per cent of students. One-fifth of Indigenous state school students live in remote areas, 24 per cent in rural areas and 56 per cent in urban communities.
Josh was one of 57 Indigenous students at Deception Bay State High School last year, at the state average of eight per cent of the 714-strong student population.
'We had an Indigenous Support Officer who Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students could go to for one-on-one support, someone who believed in our ability to achieve,' he said.
Mr Kearney said new approaches reaping results included the extension of service commitments, originally put in place for Year 12 students in the Torres Strait and Cape York, to all year levels in schools across the Far North.
'Some 129 Far North Queensland state schools and work units are implementing a service commitment that is transforming the way state education is delivered in the region,' he said.
'The service commitment is a vision of high expectations for all students that commits the school to every student completing senior schooling to achieve an OP and enter university, or progress to VET or be in paid employment.
'In Mount Isa, Spinifex State College, with its residential facility, has opened greater access to Year 12 schooling.
'We are also partnering with Noel Pearson and the Cape York Institute 
, are involved in the educational elements of the Welfare Reform trial being run at Mossman Gorge, Aurukun, Hope Vale and Coen, and are working closely with Dr Chris Sarra's Indigenous Education Leadership Institute to develop Indigenous leaders.'
Mr Kearney said Education Queensland teachers were embedding Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander perspectives in all aspects of schooling, and Indigenous Schooling Support Units were delivering professional development and support programs.
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