Ramingining: the model for increasing school attendance

A significant increase in school attendance from last year has led to Ramingining School becoming the model for other communities seeking increased attendance.

For years, teachers and elders in the remote northern Arnhem Land community have been struggling to get kids to attend school.

However, when the Remote School Attendance Strategy (RSAS) was introduced, the school took the opportunity to work closely with the Arnhem Land Progress Association RJCP team, who manage RSAS in Ramingining, their goal was to make the school a part of the community so students, parents and families would become comfortable in the school environment.

A key part of the plan’s success was giving RSAS team members the autonomy to steer the day-to-day operations of RSAS, including working along existing clan lines, to ensure it was community led and fitted in with the cultural contexts in Ramingining.

Local elder Peter Buwanba, a member of the RSAS team in Ramingining, said the strategy was the key to the large increase in attendance.

“The principal meets with us every day to discuss which students are having problems and which parents are not being cooperative,” Peter said.

“The school has made us feel welcome so we work together better to get kids to school.”

Peter was excited about the introduction of RSAS as it supports his own beliefs on education.

“School is such an important part of life,” Peter said.

“I’ve got grandkids, nieces and nephews at school so I have been waking kids up and getting them to school in the morning anyway. Now we all work together as a community and kids have become really excited about school,” he said.

The Ramingining model has been shown to be so effective that other communities striving to raise attendance rates are instituting similar models.

The Ramingining RSAS team are not resting on their laurels though, and are pursuing higher attendance rates in the future, including targeting age groups with the lowest attendance rates.