College’s dire woes revealed
KORMILDA College’s finances became so dire it was forced to can what it regarded as crucial health services for its boarding students.
The school, which will be taken over and renamed the Haileybury Rendall School at the start of next year, told the Royal Commission into the Protection and Detention of Children in the Northern Territory, it was forced to cut its school counsellor and psychologist from its health clinic.
In the written submission, principal Dr Helen Spiers said: “A health clinic is critical in order to manage the health and trauma backgrounds of the indigenous students, especially on their arrival back to school each term.”
The submission, one of more than 70 from institutions, academics and charities, also said that the school cut back from two full-time nurses to one.
It said the school had also been rebuffed in its requests to get funding for a part-time onsite doctor to treat students with health problems.
Dr Spiers said more funding was needed to ensure “remotely based Aboriginal students are educated to a level that enables them to fulfil their educational and vocational aspirations like any other teenager”.
The royal commission is due to deliver its final report by November 17, more than seven months later than originally planned.