Chloe Allen, an Awabakal and Dunghutti woman who grew up in the Northern Rivers on Bundjalung Country, was the first person in her family to finish secondary school, and to gain a university degree.
Ms Allen, who joined educational organisation MultiLit last year as project lead of the federal government-funded Closing the Gap program, has been visiting Indigenous-majority schools across the country who are enrolled in the initiative to help improve students' English literacy outcomes.
"Staying in school just wasn't encouraged when I was growing up; it was sort of expected that you would get an apprenticeship or find a job around year 9 or 10," she said.
"Completing school and going on to further study absolutely changed the course of my life and I want all young people – especially Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students – to be able to have that same opportunity and go on to become leaders in their own fields."
Previously the headteacher of the of the Pacific Gulgangali Jarjums Christian School in Tweed Heads, which caters to Indigenous students requiring a little extra help and support in the classroom, Ms Allen said a range of complex factors meant a considerable number of First Nations students were leaving school with reading levels "significantly below the national minimum standard, which severely impacts their employment prospects".
The pandemic also disrupted schooling, with many students falling more than two years behind the average reading ability.
"A lot of my former students have experienced trauma in their lives, and they needed routine and structure in order to feel comfortable even being inside a classroom," Ms Allen said.
"Previously, the school was using a teaching approach known as balanced literacy, which relies on children being quite independent in their learning and it just wasn't working."
The Closing the Gap initiative was launched in 2021, and is a partnership between MultiLit and regional, remote, and very remote schools located across Australia.
It is currently in NSW, Western Australia, South Australia, Queensland, and the Northern Territory, and has 42 schools enrolled.
Ms Allan said Pacific Gulgangali Jarjums joined Closing the Gap last year, rolling out the evidence-based programs by MultiLit, including the phonics-based InitiaLit program, which uses systematic synthetic phonics to teach children to decode words and improve their reading ability.
Despite it being early days in the program, Ms Allan said she noticed children quickly became used to the lesson structure, which offered reassurance and confidence, which in turn fostered engagement.
"Students who previously struggled to engage with reading are now well on the way to becoming confident and fluent readers," she said.
"I've enjoyed travelling to the different schools and hearing similar stories about students making significant progress, which is going to hold them in good stead throughout their education."
MultiLit has a long history of engagement with Indigenous students and educators, from work at the Redfern Public School in NSW to collaborating with Indigenous leader Noel Pearson to bring MultiLit programs to students in Cape York.
Chairman, Kevin Wheldall AM, said ultimately, the objective of the Closing the Gap program was to have all students in participating schools reading at the minimum level within the average range of their age and schooling year.
"Barriers to literacy can be overcome when schools and teachers are equipped with the right knowledge and tools to support all children to learn to read to the best of their ability," Professor Wheldall said.
"It is incredibly important that young people leave primary school having attained a standard of English literacy that enables them to access the curriculum in secondary school so they can build the necessary knowledge and skills they need for life."
