I COULD HAVE FALLEN THROUGH THE CRACKS
A FIRST Nations representative, from the regions, and male: Zane Ratcliff knows that statistically speaking he was unlikely to attend university.
Mr Ratcliff grew up in Gayndah, about three hours north west of Brisbane, where he attended Burnett State College with his five siblings.
While many of his classmates went straight into full-time employment after graduating, Mr Ratcliff left his home town at 17 for
university. The 22-year-old is now halfway through a double teaching degree at the Australian Catholic University where he aims to inspire the next generation of indigenous students.
“I tick all the boxes as someone unlikely to go to university,” Mr Ratcliff said.
According to a 2018-2019 national survey, just 8.1 per cent of all First Nations Australians aged between 20 and 64 had attained or were studying a bachelor degree.
Indigenous Australians are also far less likely to complete Year 12 than non
Indigenous Australians, according to the government’s Closing The Gap Report 2020.
The National Year 12 attainment rate for indigenous students was about 60 per cent, compared to more than 90 per cent for non-indigenous students.
While Mr Ratcliff wasn’t the first in his family to continue on to higher education, having followed older sister Brydon, he said he could have easily been lost through the cracks.
“Financially it was hard. I hadn’t got my licence and had a lot of struggle getting into work and uni which not all kids have to worry about,” he said, adding that the uni had helped him.
The dedicated young man already knows where his post-university future lies – in very depths of Australia’s bush teacher shortage.
“I want to go give back to the remote parts, Far North Queensland and inland as well,” Mr Ratcliff said.
“They are really in need of teachers up there and I think I can take my best attributes. Convince them that there is a pathway (to university).”