About the AEC
What is the AEC?
A community organisation of Aboriginal and non- Aboriginal people working to:
- Promote genuine equality of educational opportunity for Aboriginal people throughout NSW
- lnitiate, new educational programs to achieve the vision of the AEC
- Inform the wider community. about the difficulties continually confronting Aboriginal people today
- Since its foundation in 1963 the AEC has been in the forefront of Aboriginal education. The AEC has:
- Pioneered many new initiatives and established innovative pilot projects in areas of special needs
- Assisted in promoting the need for further development of specialist educational-opportunities
- Encouraged governments and their agencies to provide support and
further development ensuring successful educational outcomes for
Aboriginal people
The Problem
Throughout Australia Aboriginal people still face many disadvantages:
- Aboriginal people are the most severely disadvantaged sector of Australian society
- Cultural differences as well as historical factors mean that many families exist below the poverty line
- Third world conditions still exist for Aboriginal people in
AUstralia; often they live under appalling conditions and suffer
chronic illness, malnutition and their lifestyle suffers through lack
of educational and employment opportunities
- Aboriginal people continue to he faced with social prejudices and discrimination
- Cultural differences between home and school impact on educational opportunities
Through
no fault of their own many young Aboriginal people start school at a
great disadvantage. Often enough they become discouraged and soon begin
to experience failure.
All too often they lose motivation and leave school without the necessary educational skills to compete in the wider community.
Some Achievements of the AEC
- Administers scholarships and bequests ensuring that educational
needs of Aboriginal students are met. Examples are the Norman Catts
Trust and the Ken Brindle Memorial scholarships
- Incentive secondary scholarship scheme which was the forerunner of the Commonwealth government’s ABSTUDY scheme
- Compensatory assistance scheme which provided equipment and
resources to schools with a high proportion of Aboriginal students; and
now funded by the Commonwealth government through its Disadvantaged
Schools Program, and a special Country Area Program
- Funding for the employment of two Aboriginal people as Teacher
Aides. This was the forerunner of the NSW government’s Aboriginal
Teaching Assistance Scheme
- Support of Pre—schools, and conducting pilot projects to develop means of improving early education of Aboriginal students
- In 2003 instituting secondary scholarships for years 8/9 to encourage continuing education
- Scholarships to year 6 primary students selected by Superintendents
of the NSW Department of Education and Training School districts
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