School funding to hit indigenous boarders

THE biggest boarding school for indigenous students in the Northern Territory is considering closing its boarding house this year.

David Shinkfield

THE biggest boarding school for indigenous students in the Northern Territory is considering closing its boarding house this year - leaving 220 students from outback communities stranded - with the principal claiming changes to the federal government's funding arrangements for remote students are to blame.

Kormilda College, an independent school in Darwin, was forced to close one boarding house last year, cutting 80 boarding places for indigenous students, and principal David Shinkfield said the school faces shutting down its boarding facilities by the middle of this year for the remaining boarders.

"There's no alternative for these kids. There's no other school for them to go (to)," Mr Shinkfield said.

"There's no recognition or support for what Kormilda College as a private school is doing for these kids, who are 100 per cent government funded. We are in financial difficulties based on the change in funding that's taken place."

The indigenous students who attend Kormilda are fully funded by the federal government, with targeted funding programs for indigenous and remote students meeting their education costs and Abstudy payments intended to cover the cost of boarding.

But Mr Shinkfield said Abstudy had increased at only the rate of inflation and failed to keep pace with the rising living expenses for the boarders, while changes to the way the federal government allocated money for remote indigenous students has resulted in the school receiving $2000 less for each student.

Kormilda has been carrying a shortfall in funding for its indigenous students of $500,000 a year since 2009. Abstudy will fail to fully cover the boarding costs this year for the first time, leaving the school in financial difficulty. Abstudy has been rising about 2.6 per cent a year since 2007 while the cost of education has been rising 4.5 per cent a year on average.

As well as reducing the number of students, the school has cut its staff, including teachers, by almost one quarter since 2009.

Mr Shinkfield was aware of other non-government boarding schools in the Territory having the same difficulties but their situation was less critical because they were part of a school system, which enabled funding and costs to be shared among a group of schools.

"Kormilda has a much greater number of students than the other schools and, being an independent school, what we get is what we get," Mr Shinkfield said.

A spokeswoman for School Education Minister Peter Garrett denied the school's funding had been effectively cut, saying the department had investigated the school's situation and found it was not at a disadvantage in its funding for indigenous students.

"The Australian government has already reviewed support for indigenous students at the college to ensure that all funding due to the school and the students is provided. This resulted in an additional $204,000 in 2009 and 2010," she said.

The college has also been encouraged to contact the Department of Human Services to ensure that all relevant Abstudy payments for students are being claimed. Kormilda started as a government school for indigenous students in the 1960s and has been run as an independent school by the Uniting and Anglican churches since 1988. It has about 1000 students, of whom one-third are indigenous, and all but four of the boarders are from remote indigenous communities.

Mr Shinkfield said the indigenous boarding program was a foundation of the school, and the school's example of indigenous and non-indigenous students being educated on the same campus was "real reconciliation".

"It's part of the future of the Territory, with indigenous and non-indigenous people educated to the same level and with an understanding of living and working with each other," he said.