2015 National Report on schooling in Australia released

The National Report on Schooling in Australia 2015 is the annual report on Australia’s school education sector. It has been produced by ACARA on behalf of the Education Council.The report highlights progress in 2015 towards the Melbourne Declaration on Educational Goals for Young Australians agreed by Australian education ministers in 2008. 

Part 1, ‘Schools and schooling’, provides information on the status of Australian schooling in 2015, including school, student and teacher numbers, school structures and funds used for school education.

The majority – 71 per cent – of schools are government schools, established and administered by state and territory governments through their education departments or authorities. The remaining 29 per cent are non-government schools, mostly associated with religious organisations. 

Around two-thirds (65 per cent) of school students are enrolled in government schools and approximately one-third (35 per cent) in non-government schools.

Staff numbers closely reflect enrolments, with 64 per cent of school teachers employed by the government school sector and 36 per cent by non-government schools.

Data reported for 2015 include that:

• The average national attendance rate for students in Years 1–10 was 92.6 per cent. Average attendance rates were lower for Years 8, 9 and 10 than for Years 1–7.
  
  
• At 83.7 per cent, the average attendance rate for Indigenous students was 9.4 percentage points lower than for non-Indigenous students (93.1 per cent). There was a decrease in this gap of 0.3 percentage points in 2015.
  
  
• Based on data collected for 2015, which excluded NSW government school students, 77.8 per cent of Australian students in Years 1–10 attended school for at least 90 per cent of school days. However, only 49.2 per cent of Indigenous students met this benchmark.
  
  
• NAPLAN participation rates for reading, writing and literacy were over 90 per cent for each of Years 3, 5, 7 and 9, but were lower in each domain for Year 9 than for Years 3, 5 and 7.
  
  
• The proportion of students achieving at or above the minimum standard in NAPLAN tests was over 90 per cent for all year groups tested in reading and numeracy, and for Years 3 and 5 in writing. In writing, the proportion of students achieving at or above the minimum standard was 87.3 per cent for Year 7 and 80.5 per cent for Year 9.
  
  
• There was an increase from 51.4 per cent to 55.1 per cent in the proportion of students achieving at or above the proficient standard in science literacy since this sample assessment was last conducted in 2012.