Topic: The Fourth R – Human Rights and Education
Dorothy is the Principal of Holroyd High School in Sydney’s Western suburbs. Holroyd High is a disadvantaged school: over 90 per cent of students are of non-English speaking background, almost half of them in Australia for less than three years. Approximately 60 percent are young refugees. Dorothy reminded us of the decline in human rights that had transpired over successive Federal governments, especially with the rights of children. She gave us examples of students at her school who, with support and encouragement, had gone on to university. This was the ideal we should be working towards instead of incarceration at detention centres.
