Closing the education gap in Australia for First Nations boys

In Australia, the school attendance rate of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children is 14% lower than non-Indigenous students and as low as 63%, on average, in remote areas.

To help to close this gap and create multi-generational change, Clontarf Foundation’s 149 academies in schools around Australia are supporting at-risk First Nations boys to attend school, finish Year 12 and enter employment. 

Each school day starts with buses picking boys up from home. In addition to attending school, the boys get to participate in a range of capacity building activities designed to make school an attractive place to be.  By participating in these activities and being attached to mentors, they increase their school attendance and self-esteem,  and improve their health and wellbeing.

It’s a behaviour change program that works because the boys make the change themselves.

The average school attendance for the 10,822 boys enrolled in July 2023 was 79% for the semester. Clontarf’s model yields extraordinary long-term results too. Twenty years after its first graduates exited the program in 2002, a study found 94% were working full-time, compared to 50% of Indigenous males across the general population, among other very positive findings. 

A total of 242 boys are enrolled in Goodman-supported academies with attendance at an average of 82%. Their participation is fuelled by activities they don’t want to miss including Year 12 leadership camps, rugby carnivals, employment forums and camping trips.

The Goodman Foundation’s latest partnership with Clontarf has centred around establishing three new academies (Tweed River and Lake Cargelligo in NSW, and Ballarat in Victoria) and directly funding two existing academies (in Cranebrook (Penrith) and Matraville in Sydney’s south-east). The new academies reported a very successful half-year with 113 boys enrolled – including twelve Year 12 boys – with that number expected to grow.

Goodman’s people in Australia have embraced the program. They’ve made significant financial contributions (matched by the Foundation), attended sporting events, mentored boys, hosted internship programs and participated in the boys’ visits to Goodman offices.