Yirara College and other Alice Springs schools get millions in federal funding for boarding upgrades
Students will no longer have to live in dorms reminiscent of a ‘submarine’, one Red Centre principal says, after his school was offered $10m for upgrades. Find out more.
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The principal of a Red Centre boarding school says students will no longer live in conditions “like a submarine” or be turned away – with the school set to benefit from a multi-million dollar upgrade, courtesy of the federal government.
Yirara College students cheered as federal minister for Indigenous Australians Malarndirri McCarthy on Thursday announced the school would receive $10 million to upgrade boarding facilities.
Yirara College is one of a trio of schools in Alice Springs set to benefit from the federal government’s $18 million Central Australia boarding response fund.
Yipirinya School has been offered $6.3 million and St Philip’s College has been offered up to $1.7 million.
Yirara College principal Wesley Meurant said the money would go toward upgrading the 50-year-old boys and girls dorms, with a majority to be spent on the girls dorms.
“There’s a great level of excitement that we can actually now, after 50 years, look at changing it and make it something that looks and feels hospitable as a home environment,” he said.
Mr Meurant said student’s told him the inside of the dorms were “like a submarine” and the new plan was “opening out the buildings to each other”.
“So at the moment, there’s a big communal space which is in the middle, and we’re looking to actually fold out those buildings into that area,” he said.
“It’ll come with structural supports and whatnot, as well, providing either three and three basketball courts style things, our outdoor auditoriums, the outdoor barbecue areas.
“We really want to focus on the communal aspect of what Yirara is.”
Mr Muerant said the school previously had to turn away “maybe 40 to 50” students due to its current boarding facilities.
He said works were expected to begin later this year, with the completion date “mid to late next year”.
Ms McCarthy said boarding school was the only option for many First Nations students in Australia.
“This funding will provide more opportunities for First Nations young people in remote communities to access quality education, increasing participation, attendance and retention in Central Australian schools,” she said.
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