OCEANIA/AUSTRALIA - Local Church talks with Federal Government about opening Catholic schools to ensure high-school education for Aboriginal youth

Sydney (Fides Service) - With criticism mounting over the number of Indigenous students missing out on high school education, the Archbishop of Sydney Cardinal George Pell, said that the local Church is negotiating with the Federal Government to open a Catholic school at Wadeye Aboriginal community and could open more.
Recent studies revealed that many Aboriginal children have less access to education and this is an obstacle to full integration in society and opens the way to the trap of juvenile delinquency, crime, alcoholism and prostitution. The government has turned to the local Catholic Church to help tackle the problem. Catholic schools have a long tradition in the country. “We have something to offer, said Cardinal Pell - religious ethos, moral framework as well as providing a very good education”.
Families appreciate the quality of education and formation provided by Catholic schools and the number of pupils is on the rise: recognition which rewards the efforts of Australia’s Catholic community in this field.
People like the serious character of the schools, the quality of the teaching corps and the school structures, but most of all they appreciate the moral values which the school aims to transmit in scholastic practice. Australia’s first Catholic school was opened in 1820. Today the country has 1,700 Catholic institutes of education of all grades with 640,000 pupils and 40,000 teachers. (PA) (Agenzia Fides 27/3/2007 righe 26 parole 269)