HARD WORK MAKES A WORLD OF DIFFERENCE
NORTH Geelong Secondary College VCE students from refugee and non-English backgrounds have done “extremely well”, proud principal Nick Adamou says.
Students who do not have English as their first language or have come to Australia as refugees face unique educational challenges, like Jason Jaan, who moved here from Afghanistan.
“Personally, for me, I never had formal schooling in my life,” the 20-year-old, who lives in Corio, said.
“It was a rural area, Taliban ruled that area, so there was no schooling. “Schools were bombed.” He arrived in Australia in August 2015, and on Friday, felt “very proud” and “very blessed” when he received his ATAR score.
He plans to study criminology, and then transfer into law.
The beginning of VCE was daunting for Mr Jaan, “because the language used in school was very academic, it was very different than the normal English we spoke”.
Mr Jaan joined Moo K’Phru Say, who came to Australia from a refugee camp on the border of Thailand and Burma, and Fatemeh Heidaritabrizi, who moved to Australia from Iran but not as a refugee, at the college after the release of results, and all had praise for the school.
Miss Say plans to study criminology before entering the police force, while Miss Heidaritabrizi said she would like to study dentistry.
Mr Adamou said he was very proud of his students.
Twenty students from refugee backgrounds finished VCE at the college this year.