An Australian-first education program which was spearheaded by members of Orange's own Indigenous community is already seeing dramatic change in the lives of the teenage boys it supports.
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The Ngurang-gu Yalbilinya (meaning "place of learning" in Wiradjuri) program was established at the beginning of the 2021 school year for young Aboriginal boys aged between 12 and 16 who had become disengaged with education for varying reasons.
By just Term 2 - less than six months into the program's existence - its success as an education model is staggering.
On average, students' spelling had improved five levels; their reading age comprehension had jumped nearly two years and their attendance rate was at over 90 percent.
One boy alone had had his reading level improve three-and-a-half years in that small space of time.
Facilitated by Canobolas Rural Technology High School teachers Tim Bennett and Scott Sullivan and teacher's aide Mark Polley, the program was instigated by Orange Aboriginal Lands Council and the Orange Aboriginal Medical Services to provide a more "holistic" approach to education.
Mr Bennett explained that involved a more individually tailored environment which also involved leaders from the Wiradjuri community teaching the boys about traditional language, dance and history, among other culturally-important subjects.
"The idea before was that [education] stops at the school gate. We try to actually work with the families very closely," Mr Bennett said.
"The big thing to see massive improvement was attendance. While the improvement in literacy and numeracy is unbelievable."
Mr Bennett was quick to add that while a good education may not necessarily improve a person's life, it had an enormous impact on "your choices in life".
"And that's what we're about - [because] the lower the education, the lower the choices you have in life... And those are just the rules of life," he said.
While Ngurang-gu Yalbilinya is run through Canobolas High School with support from Orange City Council, it is also fully supported on a state level by the NSW Aboriginal Education Consultative Group (AECG), the NSW Aboriginal Lands Council, NSW Police and the Department of Communities and Justice.
"The [Orange Aboriginal] Lands Council have supplied us with buses to pick the boys up [in the morning from home], we feed the boys with great help from Woolworths.... and the Orange City Council supplies us with buildings [to run the program from]. They also pay for the electricity and the gas," Mr Bennett said.
"So we've got some really big support here locally, but [also] state-wide with the AECG."
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