QUEENSLAND’S 14 Catholic boarding schools with indigenous students could miss out on more than $1 million in government funding if a new Federal Government funding model is accepted.
Queensland Catholic Education Commission (QCEC) executive director Mike Byrne said he was concerned that the funding model proposed to allocate supplementary assistance to indigenous boarders “based on the location of the schools not where the students come from”.
The schools are located in Brisbane, Townsville, Cairns, Rockhampton and Toowoomba.
Townsville’s St Patrick’s College principal Kathy Park told The Catholic Leader she “thoroughly concurred” with Mr Byrne’s concern, noting that 92 of the school’s 96 indigenous boarders were from remote areas.
“A large percentage of our indigenous students come from remote communities like the Hammond and Thursday islands, Coen at Cape York and Saibai in the Torres Strait to give a few examples,” she said.
“The additional support that students from such communities require is well deserved.
“Many of these students come from non-literate communities and need one-on-one tutoring to help them catch up to the rest of the school community.
“There are often pastoral issues to do with trauma experienced in their communities.
“Additional medical attention is also required in terms of vaccinations and problems relating to eyesight, hearing and so on.”
There are 14 Catholic boarding schools in Queensland that have indigenous students from remote or very remote areas.
Ten of the schools, including St Joseph’s College at Nudgee in Brisbane, are regarded by the Australian Government as providing significant services to indigenous students.
Two other such Catholic schools – Abergowrie College near Ingham and St Brendan’s College at Yeppoon – revealed similarly high enrolments of indigenous students from remote areas.
Of Abergowrie’s 200 indigenous boarders, 194 were from remote or very remote areas and St Brendan’s had 90 out of its 96 indigenous boarders in the same category.
Mr Byrne said of the 656 indigenous boarding students enrolled at Queensland Catholic colleges this year, 533 or 81 per cent were from remote or very remote locations.
“Based on these figures, if the 533 remote students were funded at the non-remote rate as proposed, our Catholic boarding schools would be short-changed about $1.15 million,” he said.
Hearings on the funding model, which sets out the arrangements for the period 2009 to 2013, will be held on November 19.
The Senate Standing Committee on Education, Employment and Workplace Relations will report on the provisions of the Bill by November 27.
