Let’s stand together to end education inequality for Australia’s Indigenous kids
- sheridandinsdale
- Oct 5, 2017
- 2 min read
As a nation, we pride ourselves on giving everyone a fair go, for wanting everyone to have the same rights and opportunities, especially our children.
We want to give our kids the best possible start in life, and this begins with education but for some of Australia’s most disadvantaged kids, Indigenous kids, there is inequality when it comes to education.
To address this inequality, a group of university students created AIME (Australian Indigenous Mentoring Experience) a mentoring program that connects Indigenous high school kids from years 7 to 12 with university students.
Since its creation in 2005, over 10,000 high school students and 5,000 university students have been involved in the AIME program, making it the largest volunteer movement of university students in Australian history.
We all need that push sometimes, that little sprinkle of positivity that gives us the power to believe in ourselves and the confidence to work hard for what we want and that’s what AIME mentors do.
At AIME program days, tutoring groups and mentoring sessions the mentors provide the encouragement but the commitment and hard work is up to the mentees, and it’s clear by the following statistics the hard work pays off.
Last year 94.1 percent of AIME mentees completed year 12, and 73.3 percent went on to complete further education or gain employment.
While these statistics paint a positive picture for Indigenous Australian education, there is still a long way to go.
According to last year’s Closing the Gap Prime Ministers Report, only 61.5 percent of Indigenous students completed year 12 compared to 86.4 percent of non-Indigenous students.
We’ve all heard that saying “be the change you want to see in the world,” well here’s your chance to be that change.
You can help end education inequality for young Indigenous Aussies by getting your university involved, becoming a mentor, buying some merchandise (the hoodies are legendary) or making a donation.
Visit the AIME website to find out more.
Equality doesn’t just happen, we have to stand together and make it happen.
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