Education in Australia
Education in Australia encompasses the sectors of early childhood education[8] (preschool) and primary education (primary schools), followed by secondary education (high schools), and finally tertiary education, which includes higher education (universities and other higher education providers) and vocational education (registered training organisations).[9] Regulation and funding of education is primarily the responsibility of the States and territories;[2] however, the Australian Government also plays a funding role.[10][11]
Education in Australia is compulsory between the ages of four, five, or six[12] and fifteen, sixteen or seventeen, depending on the state or territory and the date of birth.[13]
For primary and secondary education, government schools educate approximately 60 per cent of Australian students, with approximately 40 per cent in non-government schools.[5] At the tertiary level, the majority of Australia's universities are public, and student fees are subsidised through a student loan program where payment becomes due when debtors reach a certain income level.
Underpinned by the Australian Qualifications Framework, implemented in 1995, Australia has adopted a national system of qualifications, encompassing higher education, vocational education and training (VET), and school-based education.[14] For primary and secondary schools, a national Australian Curriculum has been progressively developed and implemented since 2010.[15][16]
Australia is a leading global provider of education to international students, and in 2012 was ranked as the third-largest provider of international education after the United States and the United Kingdom.[17] Australia has the highest ratio of international students per head of population in the world by a large margin, with 812,000 international students enrolled in the nation's universities and vocational institutions in 2019.[18][19]
However, Australian students placed 16th in the world in reading, 29th in maths and 17th in science in the 2018 PISA study by the OCED. This continues a sharp decline in educational standards.[20][21][22][23]
The Education Index, published with the UN's Human Development Index in 2018, based on data from 2017, listed Australia as 0.929, the second-highest in the world.[24]
Regulation and funding[edit]
The regulation, operation, and funding of education is the responsibility of the states and territories,[2] because the Australian Government does not have a specific constitutional power to pass laws with concerning education.[25] However, the federal government helps to fund non-government schools,[26] helps to fund public universities and subsidises tertiary education through a national student loan scheme,[27] and regulates vocational education providers.[28]
Post-compulsory education is regulated within the Australian Qualifications Framework, a unified system of national qualifications in schools, vocational education and training, and the tertiary education sector.
The Australian Government's involvement in education has been the responsibility of several departments over the years,[note a] with the Department of Education, Skills and Employment being formed in 2020.
The academic year in Australia varies between States and institutions; however, it generally runs from late January/early February until early/mid-December for primary and secondary schools, with slight variations in the inter-term holidays[29][30][31][32][33][34][35][36] and TAFE colleges,[37][38][39] and from late February until mid-November for universities with seasonal holidays and breaks for each educational institute.[40]
Preschool[edit]
Historically, preschool and pre-prep programmes in Australia were relatively unregulated and not compulsory.[41] While still not mandatory for children to attend, the Federal Government has had a focus since 2009 on encouraging families to enrol their children (from around 4 years of age) in a preschool or kindergarten that delivers quality early childhood education and care[42] Federal and state legislation now requires preschool services to implement and deliver programming based on the nationally approved Early Years Learning Framework[43] The first exposure many Australian children have to learn with others outside of traditional parenting is daycare or a parent-run playgroup.[44] This sort of activity is not generally considered schooling, as preschool education is separate from primary school in all states and territories, except Western Australia where pre-school education is taught as part of the primary school system[45] and Victoria where the state framework, the Victorian Early Years Learning and Development Framework (VEYLDF) covers children from birth to 8 years old, is used by some schools over the national framework.[46] In Queensland, preschool programmes are often called Kindergarten or Pre-Prep and are usually privately run but attract state government funding if run for at least 600 hours a year and delivered by a registered teacher.[47]
Preschools are usually run by the state and territory governments, except in Victoria, South Australia and New South Wales where they are more often run by local councils, community groups or private organisations.[45] Preschool is offered to three- to five-year-olds; attendance numbers vary widely between the states, but 85.7% of children attended preschool the year before school.[48] The year before a child is due to attend primary school is the main year for preschool education. This year is far more commonly attended and may take the form of a few hours of activity during weekdays.[49] Most states of Australia now fund government preschools to offer 15 hours per week (600 hours over a year) for each enrolled child in the year before they commence formal schooling[50]
Mixed-sex and single-sex education[edit]
In Australia, both government and non-government schools operate co-educational and single-sex educational environments for students. The overwhelming number of schools are co-educational, with a small proportion of government schools operating single-sex schools, sometimes with a separate boys' and girls' school in the same suburb. All government single-sex schools are secondary schools. Examples of adjacent single-sex government secondary schools include Asquith Boys' and Asquith Girls', Canterbury Boys', North Sydney Boys' and North Sydney Girls', Randwick Boys' and Randwick Girls', and Sydney Boys' and Sydney Girls' (all in Sydney); and Melbourne High, Canterbury Girls', and Mac.Robertson Girls' (in Melbourne).
The majority of single-sex schools in Australia are non-government schools, heavily weighted towards private schools, some of which are Catholic private schools. Some Catholic systemic schools are also single-sex schools; however, like government schools, the overwhelming majority are co-educational schools.