Australia ‘failing to increase Indigenous access to schools’

The federal government has “well and truly” missed a national target to increase access to secondary education for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children by 2018, the opposition spokeswoman for Indigenous Australians has told parliament.

“The overall attendance rate for Aboriginal students is 82 per cent, compared to 93 per cent for non-Indigenous students, so there is a gap of over 10 per cent in attendance rates,” Linda Burney said in a speech to the lower house in Canberra on 10 September.

“There have been no improvements in school attendance targets between 2014 and 2018. It seems to me that the funds that have already been spent have been very well intentioned, I’m sure, but in terms of school attendance, these funds need to be redeployed; there needs to be a fresh eye on school attendance.”