Year 12 parents and students Sara Kayembe with Odette, and Sindhrani Dars with Aaliya. TELL US: Have you fought a local issue and won? MOTHERS on a mission to learn have overturned a Federal Government policy that was preventing them from finishing school. A policy change last year meant parents over the age of 20, who had returned to high school to complete Year 12, became ineligible for childcare assistance from the Government, costing many of them more than $100 a week. This left the education future of hundreds of students across Australia in doubt, including more than 80 from Thebarton Senior College. In response, Thebarton's governing council wrote to local MP Steve Georganas, explaining how the policy would disadvantage many of its students. Mr Georganas requested that Early Childhood Minister Kate Ellis review the policy and she recommended that it be amended to ensure adult high school students could be supported, which was approved last week. Thebarton principal Kim Hebenstreit said students did not become aware of the change until they started to receive childcare bills of hundreds of dollars a week. "This is a truly fantastic outcome for young secondary student mums in SA and right across Australia," he said. Mother-of-two Sindhrani Dars, 21, started Year 12 last year and planned to complete her SACE this year. She migrated to Australia in 2011 and hoped to study medicine at university. But her high school qualification was not recognised, so she had to return to school here and earn a university entrance score. "Honestly I felt terrible (finding out the assistance had been cut)," she said. I knew I had to do Year 12 ... but without the assistance, my children would not be able to go to childcare because I'm only a student so am not able to pay higher fees, and to study and look after the children would be very hard. Ms Dars said she had to pay more than $300 a week for childcare for both of her daughters, which was reduced to little more than $100 with the Federal Government assistance. "It's really wonderful and I'm so happy that I'm going to get that service again," she said. I get to have a whole year of study without that burden because as a student I already have a lot of other study-related expenses and am not able to work much. PAGE 20: Jessica Irvine