Click here to read the full National Report on Schooling in Australia 2021 (PDF 2.0MB)

or scroll down to read the Executive Summary.

Executive summary

Introduction

The National Report on Schooling in Australia 2021 is the 33rd annual national report on Australia’s school education sector. It has been produced by the Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority (ACARA) on behalf of Australian education ministers.

The report highlights progress in 2021 towards the Alice Springs (Mparntwe) Education Declaration released by Australian education ministers in 2019 and is the second national report to address these nationally agreed goals and commitments.

The National Report on Schooling in Australia 2021 consists of 2 parts: this written report and the online National Report on Schooling data portal.

The written report addresses the 11 areas of commitment to action specified in the Alice Springs (Mparntwe) declaration, describes the national policy and reporting context for school education in Australia, and reports against the nationally agreed key performance measures (KPMs) for schooling specified in the Measurement Framework for Schooling in Australia 2020, providing data, analysis and commentary. It also includes other high-level statistical information on Australian schooling in 2021 and for the period 2011–2021 inclusive.

The National Report on Schooling data portal gives readers and researchers interactive access to a wider range of nationally consistent data on schooling in Australia. This includes data on enrolments, staffing, and school funding, and on the KPMs for student participation, achievement in the National Assessment Program (NAP), and attainment of Year 12 and post-school qualifications.

The data portal allows readers to view data by state and territory as well as at the national level, by calendar year and by other breakdowns, such as school sector, sex and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander status, where possible and appropriate. Data sets are regularly updated as new data becomes available and may be downloaded from the portal.

Previous editions of the National Report on Schooling in Australia for the years 2009–2020 are available on the ACARA website. Editions from 1989 to 2008 are available in the Trove archive maintained by the National Library of Australia.

Overview of the report

Part 1, ‘Schools and schooling’, provides information on the status of Australian schooling in 2021, including school, student and teacher numbers and school structures.

All states and territories provide for 13 years of formal school education. Primary education, including a foundation year, lasts for either 7 or 8 years and is followed by secondary education of 6 or 5 years respectively. Typically, schooling commences at age 5, is compulsory from age 6 until age 17 (with provision for alternative study or work arrangements in the senior secondary years), and is completed at age 17 or 18. School structures and age requirements in states and territories are summarised in Part 1.4.

The majority (69.8%) of schools are government schools, established and administered by state and territory governments through their education departments or authorities. The remaining 30.2% are non-government schools, mostly associated with religious organisations. Non-government schools are established and operated under conditions determined by state and territory governments through their registration authorities. School numbers are shown in Part 1.1.

Around two-thirds (65.1%) of school students are enrolled in government schools and about one-third (34.9%) in non-government schools. Part 1.2 reports on numbers of students by school sector, state and territory, and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander status and notes the impact of national border closures due to COVID-19 on school enrolments.

Staff numbers closely reflect enrolments, with 63.6% of school teachers employed by the government school sector and 36.4% by non-government schools. Part 1.3 reports on teaching staff numbers and student–teacher ratios by school sector and state and territory.

School, student and teacher numbers in 2021 are shown for Australia and by state and territory in Figure 1.

Figure 1: Number of schools, students and teachers by state and territory, Australia, 2021

Notes:

Student numbers are individuals (full-time students plus part-time students). Teacher numbers are full-time equivalent (FTE) teaching staff.

Source: ABS, Schools, Australia, 2021; see also National Report on Schooling data portal.

Part 2, ‘Policies and priorities’, outlines the national policy context for Australian schooling in 2021 and reports against the commitments to action agreed by Australian education ministers in the Alice Springs (Mparntwe) Education Declaration.

Part 2 of this report summarises the national policy context for schooling, including the role of the national ministerial forum, the Education Ministers Meeting, in deciding agreed national policy for education in 2021 and the broader framework within which national decisions for schooling were made.

Part 2.1 lists education ministers’ agreed priorities for 2021 and describes the Alice Springs (Mparntwe) Education Declaration and the National School Reform Agreement (NSRA) as the prior national agreements shaping school education policy. It also identifies notable initiatives undertaken in 2021 and comments on the response of the school education sector to disruptions caused by the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.

The extent of disruptions due to COVID-19 to school operations in 2021 in each state and territory, and the responses of school systems within each jurisdiction are detailed in Part 2.14.

From 2020, the Alice Springs (Mparntwe) Education Declaration replaced the Melbourne Declaration as the ministerial statement of educational goals for young Australians and commitment to action for the coming decade. Ministers agreed that education continue to promote excellence and equity and enable all Australians to become confident and creative individuals, successful learners, and active and informed community members. The Alice Springs (Mparntwe) declaration emphasises the importance of learning throughout life and a renewed commitment to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples and cultures. Part 2.2 outlines the educational goals and commitment to action contained in the declaration.

Parts 2.3–2.13 report on national progress in implementing the Alice Springs (Mparntwe) Education Declaration commitment to action in 2021 under the 11 headings specified in the declaration. These sections also include activities addressing the 8 national policy initiatives specified in the National School Reform Agreement (NSRA) and list examples of state and territory initiatives relating to the commitment.

Progress towards the commitment to action reported for 2021 included:

• States and territories implemented new and continuing partnerships with industry and the community to improve science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) education. The Australian Government allocated funding to extend existing initiatives to support the teaching and learning of STEM.
• To support quality teaching and leadership, the Australian Institute for Teaching and School Leadership (AITSL) encouraged recognition of teachers certified through the Highly Accomplished and Lead Teacher (HALT) program and implemented agreed national approaches to accreditation of initial teacher education.
• States and territories continued to implement the professional standards for teachers and principals, and the accreditation of teachers and teacher education programs, within their jurisdictions.
• States and territories and non-government sectors implemented initiatives for early childhood education, for the formative years of primary school, for the middle years of schooling, and for senior schooling and youth transitions.
• A range of activities were undertaken in response to the 2020 review of senior secondary pathways into work, including the mapping of skills development activities, developing specifications to inform learner profiles, enhancing career information and agreeing on the scope and principles of a national strategy for VET delivered to secondary students.
• Under the Heads of Agreement for Skills Reform (signed in July 2020), the Australian, state and territory governments have committed to strengthening VET pathways for secondary students.
• ACARA completed its review of the Foundation to Year 10 Australian Curriculum as requested by ministers. The revised Australian Curriculum, Version 9.0, will be considered for endorsement by education ministers in early 2022.
• NAPLAN testing was resumed in May 2021 following its cancellation in 2020. Tests were administered to over 1.2 million students with approximately 67% of students undertaking the tests online, on track to the full transition to NAPLAN online in 2022.
• In November 2021, Education Ministers Meeting agreed in principle to move NAPLAN tests to Term One from 2023, to maintain the existing constructs for NAPLAN tests, to phase in opt-in assessments in Science, Civics & Citizenship and Digital Literacy and to move the NAP Sample test window to Term Two from 2023. 
• In line with the NSRA, work continued to explore how learning progressions and formative assessment can enhance the capacity of teachers to make evidence-based decisions about student learning.
• In 2021 the Australian Government, all states and territories and the Coalition of Peaks (representing Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander organisations) released their first annual Closing the Gap Implementation plans under the 2020 National Agreement on Closing the Gap. All states and territories operated programs to support Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students and communities within their jurisdictions.
• The final report of the 5-yearly review of the Disability Standards for Education (DSE) was released in March 2021. The Australian Government worked with state and territory governments and non-government education authorities to implement the recommendations, with an initial focus on the development of information products.
• The My School website was updated to include school profile data for 2014 to 2020, and data on school finances, VET in schools and post school destinations from 2014 to 2019.
• Work continued on the development of options to establish a national unique student identifier (USI) as agreed under the NSRA, including privacy impact assessments. Education ministers agreed to pilot the proposed solution with NSW, SA and NT, including some Catholic and independent schools within those jurisdictions.
• The Australian Education Research Organisation (AERO), a national policy initiative to improve the national evidence base under the NSRA was launched in December 2020. In 2021 AERO published resources to inform teacher practice, system improvement and policy development using evidence-based approaches.
  
  
  

Part 3, ‘Measuring and reporting performance’, reports on the performance of Australian schooling in 2021, using the nationally agreed key performance measures (KPMs) for schooling specified in the Measurement Framework for Schooling in Australia 2020.

Part 3 reports on 17 of the 18 agreed KPMs scheduled for reporting in 2021.

The measures are reported at the national level, and by various breakdowns, such as state and territory, school sector, school year and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander status. For relevant KPMs, time series for the previous 10 years (2011–2020) are also included. Where relevant breakdowns or time series are not reported in Part 3, they are provided in the National Report on Schooling data portal, as part of extensive statistical information on schooling in Australia, along with technical notes and caveats.

Data reported for 2021 includes:

• At the 2021 census, the national enrolment rate for 6–15-year-olds was 99.3%. Enrolment rates were 99.0% or higher in all states and territories except the NT.
• The average national attendance rate for students in Years 1–10 in 2021 was 90.9% — a fall of 0.5 percentage points from 2019, with decreases at the national level in all three school sectors, arising from the continued spread of COVID-19 in 2021.
• At 79.4%, the average attendance rate for Indigenous students was 12.2 percentage points lower than for non-Indigenous students. There was an increase in this gap of 1.7 percentage points between 2019 and 2021. 
• Among all Australian students in Years 1–10, 71.2% attended school for at least 90% of school days. However, just over 40% (41.3%) of Indigenous students within this group met the 90% benchmark. 
• The national apparent retention rate from Year 10 to Year 12 decreased by 0.5 percentage points to 81.6% in 2021. The apparent retention rate from Year 10 to Year 12 for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students decreased by 1.0 percentage points to 60.5%. The apparent gap between Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander and non-Indigenous rates widened by 0.4 percentage points to 22.2 percentage points in 2021. The long-term trends since 2011 in apparent retention rates from Year 10 to Year 12 were upward for all students and for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students, with a net fall in the gap of 4.9 percentage points between 2011 and 2021.
• NAPLAN participation rates were over 95% for each of Years 3, 5 and 7. At 92.3%, the Year 9 participation rate was lower than for other years. 
• The proportion of students achieving at or above the national minimum standard in NAPLAN tests was over 90% for Years 3, 5 and 7 in reading, and for Years 3 and 5 in writing. The proportion of students achieving at or above the national minimum standard in NAPLAN numeracy tests was over 93% for all year groups tested.
• Nationally, for Year 3 and Year 5, there were upward long-term trends in the mean scale scores and the proportion of students achieving at or above the national minimum standard for reading.
• The proportion of the 15‒19-year-old population, including secondary students, undertaking a vocational education and training (VET) qualification increased from 26.4% in 2020 to 27.3% in 2021. The long-term trend in this measure since 2015 was downward.
• The 3 KPMs measuring the participation of young people in education and/or work, as measured by the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) Survey of Education and Work (SEW), all increased in 2021, after falling in 2020 as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic’s negative impact on employment and training especially for young people. As 2021 was a census year in Australia, data for these measures drawn from the Census of Population and Housing is also reported for 2021.
• The proportion of 15–19-year-olds who were fully engaged in education, training or work, as measured by SEW, increased from 85.4% in 2020 to 90.3% in 2021. The long-term trend in this measure was upward, with an average annual increase of 0.3 percentage points.The proportion of 20–24-year-olds who were fully engaged in education, training or work increased from 71.0% in 2020 to 73.0% in 2021. However, this increase was not statistically significant and did not represent a full recovery to pre-COVID levels. There was no evident long-term trend in this measure for the period 2008–2021.
• The proportion of 17–24-year-olds who had left school and were fully engaged in education, training or work (as measured by SEW) increased from 69.3% in 2020 to 73.9% in 2021. The fall in this measure of 4.7 percentage points between 2019 and 2020 and the subsequent increase of 4.6 percentage points between 2020 and 2021 were both statistically significant and were closely related to the effect of COVID 19 on the employment of young people. With an average annual fall of 0.3 percentage points since 2008, the long-term trend in this measure was downward.
• At the 2021 census, 73.4% of 17–24-year-olds who had left school were fully engaged in education, training or work — an increase of 2.4 percentage points since 2016.
• The proportion of the 20–24-year-old population that had attained at least Year 12 or equivalent or Australian Qualifications Framework (AQF) Certificate II or above, as measured by the ABS SEW, was 89.9% in 2021, a similar level to 2020. The proportion of the 20–24-year-old population that had attained at least Year 12 or equivalent or AQF Certificate III or above increased from 89.4% in 2020 89.5% in 2021. This increase was not statistically significant, but the longer-term upward trend in this measure of 0.5 percentage points per annum since 2008 is in line with long-standing government policy to increase levels of attainment for young people.
• At the 2021 census, the proportion of the 20–24-year-old population that had attained at least Year 12 or equivalent or AQF Certificate II or above was 90.3%, compared to 88.6% in 2016; and the proportion of the 20–24-year-old population that had attained at least Year 12 or equivalent or AQF III or above was 89.9%, compared to 87.9% in 2016. These are substantial rises in census data over only 5 years.

Table 1 summarises the national KPMs for 2021 in comparison with 2020, or the most recent calendar year for which comparable data exists. This is expressed as the short-term change to each KPM. For data from the census of population and housing, the most recent previous calendar year is 2016. For attendance and NAPLAN measures the most recent previous calendar year is 2019. Table 1 also summarises longer-term trends in the movement of KPMs. This data demonstrates that while changes in KPMs from year to year are generally small, successive increments over time may result in measurable long-term trends.

Table 1: Key performance measures for schooling, Australia, 2020-2021, and long-term trends

Part 4, ‘School funding’, reports data on government spending on Australian schooling and data on school income and capital expenditure.

Part 4 outlines intergovernmental funding arrangements for school education, and reports on state and territory and Australian Government expenditure on government and non-government schools. It also summarises data on school income from all sources and capital expenditure on schools.

Schools are funded through a combination of state or territory government funding, Australian Government funding, fees and charges and other parental or private contributions.

In the 2020‒21 financial year, total recurrent government funding for schooling was $72.21 billion. This was made up of $49.96 billion (69.2%) from state and territory budgets and $22.25 billion (30.8%) from the Australian Government (Commonwealth) budget.

Overall, 76.0% of recurrent government funding was allocated to government schools and 24.0% to non-government schools. The bulk (91.6%) of state and territory funding was allocated to government schools. Most (59.0%) of the Australian Government funding was allocated to non-government schools.

Click here to read the full National Report on Schooling in Australia 2021 (PDF 2.0MB)