Joint submission between ACTCOSS and the Youth Coalition of the ACT
Education models that cater to the ‘average student’ and which are therefore ‘blind’ to diversity, can exacerbate inequalities and heighten marginalisation within schools.
As a result of the diversity within Canberra’s suburbs, most ACT schools have small numbers of highly disadvantaged students, rather than disadvantage being concentrated in a few schools. ‘Blindness’ to diversity is likely to be at least part of the reason for the strong social gradient in education in the ACT.
We recommend that the ACT Government develop, cost and fully resource a strategy to improve equity in education in the ACT.