'Closing the Gap' for Indigenous Australians

The issue of ‘Closing the Gap’ for Indigenous Australians is addressed through each aspect of the 1986 Ottawa Charter as it provides a framework upon which to base numerous policies and procedures which tackle the implementation of social justice principles in relation to health promotion.
Developing personal skills enables individuals to access information and become empowered to claim their rights. Education of this sort can happen informally and formally. Many Indigenous Australians are disengaged at school, as evident by the overall low rates of attendance of the major schools, as well as markedly lower levels of academic achievement. Indigenous students are also less informed about higher education opportunities than non- Indigenous students, which in turn have detrimental effects on their occupational opportunities later in life. In order to improve the responsibility of Indigenous student’s participation in learning, the Literacy and Numeracy NP Agreement aims to improve literacy and numeracy outcomes of students in schools with low levels of achievement. This partnership demonstrated particularly strong improvements. For example, the proportion of Indigenous students at or above the national minimum standard improved by 11.4% for year 3 reading in Queensland, around 17% for year 7 Reading in Western Australia and approximately 16% for year 3 in the Northern Territory. These statistics portray the vital role education plays in developing personal skills, in order to enable individuals with equitable opportunities to other non-indigenous students across the country.
Through access to education, individuals have greater advantages to enhanced occupational opportunities, and therefore becoming more active in their community, engaging health promotion actions and building healthy public policies. Encouraging and supporting an increase in the participation of Indigenous Australians in the health workforce is an important workforce development strategy, as well