Professor Paul Chandler appreciates the sentiment.
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And the University of Wollongong Pro-Vice Chancellor (Inclusion and Outreach) reckons NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian is right to prioritise trying to improve the educational outcomes of young Aboriginal people.
In fact that's the least Professor Chandler believes the state with the most Aboriginals in Australia should be doing.
Nevertheless he welcomes the premier's ambitious target to increase the proportion of Aboriginal students attaining Year 12 by 50 per cent by, 2023, while maintaining their cultural identity.
And Prof Chandler feels the government has done quite well already with education in terms of closing the gap.
"But more still needs to be done in terms of Aboriginal people still performing below non-Aboriginal people in some areas," he said.
"So it is good we are addressing these issue but as NSW has the largest population [of Aboriginals] we should be doing the most."
The curriculum as it stands now only teaches from 1770 onwards...so there is nothing really motivating there for Aboriginal students.
- Professor Paul Chandler
Prof Chandler, who in the year 2000 became the first indigenous dean of a mainstream faculty at any Australian university, said three things needed to happen to close the educational gap.
"The first thing I'd like to see is more investment in the early years (0-8-years) of life where you can make an immeasurable difference," he said.
"Trying to close the gap and addressing imbalances when they're in high school is more difficult because those imbalances are well established."
Prof Chandler said truth telling and being accurate in the study of history was also important.
'The curriculum as it stands now only teaches from 1770 onwards...so there is nothing really motivating there for Aboriginal students," he said.
"A focus on indigenous perspectives and indigenous knowledge and what the country looked like before settlement is important to have in the curriculum so it matches what they are getting told at home."
Parents and community also had to be involved in closing the gap.
"A lot of people still have distrust of schools....it was only a few decades ago that schools were used as a place to take away Aboriginal children.," Prof Chandler added.