Michael Nayler says it is great to see so many Catholic secondary schools are part of the Queensland Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Foundation program, which supports student educational costs in year 11 and 12. Source: The Catholic Leader.
The former Catholic school principal and QATSIF secretariat director said the foundation broke its previous scholarship record this year.
He said they also broke their record for the number of participating students elected to leadership roles in their schools.
QATSIF is Australia’s largest secondary school Indigenous scholarship program and is supporting 4300 Queensland Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students.
It supports 867 across 84 Queensland Catholic Schools.
Across QATSIF’s 15 years, the foundation has supported 18,800 young people or about seven per cent of Queensland’s total Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander population with their secondary education.
The program has had strong results, too. Mr Nayler said students in the program were achieving better results than their non-Indigenous peers.
He hoped that the positive expectations would inspire younger Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students to “dream big”.
Mr Nayler said he was grateful to be allowed to play a small part in helping Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students to achieve and was “constantly inspired by their success stories, incredible determination, resilience, and efforts”.
Only 65 per cent of First Nations students complete Year 12, compared with 80.6 per cent for all Queensland students.
In 2022, 96 per cent of QATSIF students who finished their program completed year 12.
FULL STORY
QATSIF breaks new records with support from 84 Catholic schools (By Joe Higgins, The Catholic Leader)
