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According to a major annual study on the health and wellbeing of young Australians, Indigenous children and young people experience a “concerning level of despair” beyond that of their peers. Furthermore, Mission Australia’s 2017 youth survey of more than 24,000 young Australians, released on Thursday, included the views and insights of 1,265 young Indigenous people. Nearly one in 10 young Indigenous people reported feeling “very sad” about their life overall, compared to only one in 50 non-Indigenous youth. The pressure on indigenous children at school is three times the concern of all young people conducting the survey, and indigenous children are more concerned about personal safety, drugs, bullying and discrimination.

As discussed in the video below, Cui is an Australian aborigine, in her speech, she shares her experiences in growing up in Australia. She mentions that due to her unique language, which cause her being bullied at school. Also, some teacher at the school did not understand her culture, which led to communication barriers and made her felt so unfair.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9y1T3JfzRGE (video) Video title: What Is It Like To Be Aboriginal? Video source: TEDx Talks

Other the other hand, a report find that Australia’s rich-poor gap has widening the educational inequality. Educational inequality has cost the Australian economy more than $20bn, as well as contributing to the widening gap between rich and poor. As discussed in the video below, inequality appears to become more serious as a child moved through the educational system. Parents who leave school early or have poor grades are almost behind their peers from the moment they step into school. They also tend to come from a lower socioeconomic background.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9lsDJnlJqoY (video) Video title: Education gap: The root of inequality Video source: Harvard University

This video reflect that it is clearly that the socio-economic background of the family and the level of parent education have an important impact on the education of their children. Eventually, unfair education will lead to an uneven income level after teenager graduate, and those with higher income and wealth household will be passed on to the next generation, which will further widen the gap between the rich and the poor.

Moreover, the director of the public education foundation, David Hetherington found that Australian students are generally behind international students. David Hetherington said that school is the epitome of society. If there is such a close relationship between education and income, it is important to narrow the gap in education in Australia. So he called on the government to adopt targeted teaching methods, add teachers to underperforming students, provide alternative learning programs for those who are not suitable for traditional education systems, and provide demand-based funding for schools.

It is clearly that there is widespread educational inequality in Australia, which is mainly due to the difference of parents' educational level and family's socio-economic status, which has led to the current unequal allocation of faculty, government funds and learning resource. To make matters worse, the growing problem of inequality between classes has lower the overall quality of education in Australia with the passage of time. Education as an important factor in future development, any change needs to be developed and implemented over a long period of time, because no matter what we do now, it's going to take a year or a decade to work through the system as a whole. As mentioned above, although the discrimination based on ethnicity and race in Australia is improved over the past ten years, it is clear that federal and state governments have not fully addressed the issue of inequality in education. Therefore, federal and state government policies must pay greater attention to reduce the impact of socio-economic background on student achievement through provide family allowances, to ensure that all young people can enjoy the same high-tech campus equipment and rich educational resources. At the same time, reducing the impact of ethnic and racial discrimination on young people is a major task for Australian policymakers because young people are part of a society, today's racism may have a more profound effect on future generations of young people.

Reference:

Allam, Lorena. (2018). Indigenous children more likely to fear lack of safety, bullying and discrimination. Retrieved from https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2018/oct/11/indigenous-children-more-likely-to-fear-lack-of-safety-bullying-and-discrimination

Remeikis, A. (2018). Educational inequality widening Australia’s rich-poor gap, report finds. Retrieved from https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2018/apr/03/educational-inequality-widening-australias-rich-poor-gap-report-finds

Hetherington, D (2018). Education inequality is costing Australia billions. Retrieved from https://www.ceda.com.au/Digital-hub/Blogs/CEDA-Blog/April-2018/Education-inequality-is-costing-Australia-billions

Karen, H. (2016). PISA results show further decline in Australia's education rankings, Retrieved from https://www.smh.com.au/national/pisa-results-show-further-decline-in-australias-education-rankings-20161206-gt56yb.html

Woodman, D., Wyn, J. (2015). Youth and Generation Rethinking Change and Inequity in the Lives of Young People. London: Sage Publications Ltd.