Araiz

Hello, my name is Araiz I am 16 years old and I came to the Northern Territory (NT) after completing year 9 in Pakistan. I applied for admission into year 10 at Darwin High School and was grateful to be accepted. I am a music lover and play a traditional Afghan instrument called the rabab. The rabab is an ancient instrument which has a very distinctive melodious sound.

My dream is to master the rabab and gain formal qualifications in music, film and drama. The step to come to the NT was inspired by my uncle, a long-term resident of the Territory.

Australia provides one of the best and safest educational systems in world and is highly respected in Pakistan. Studying in the NT provides me with the opportunity to choose subjects that are not traditionally taught in the school system in Pakistan, and allows me to interact with people from diverse cultural and religious backgrounds. This diversity is very new and refreshing to me as I am from a place that does not have a big multicultural community.

Darwin High School has international students from India, China, Nepal, Turkey and Iran to name a few. Darwin High School offers a specialised Secondary Intensive English unit (SIEU) for non-English speaking international students. I consider myself lucky to have been accepted into the SIEU program, rather than directly going into mainstream schooling, as I will be able to easily transition into the Australian education system.