National Report on Schooling in Australia 2012
Overview
The National Report on Schooling in Australia 2012 is the annual report on Australia’s school education sector. It is produced by the Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority (ACARA) on behalf of the Education Council.¹
The report highlights progress in 2012 towards the Melbourne Declaration on Educational Goals for Young Australians agreed by Australian Education Ministers in 2008 and on Council of Australian Governments (COAG) initiatives for school education through the National Education Agreement (NEA).
The National Report on Schooling addresses the eight areas of commitment to action specified in the Melbourne Declaration. It describes the national policy and reporting context for school education in Australia, outlines nationally agreed policy initiatives and reports against the nationally agreed key performance measures for schooling including enrolment, attendance, student achievement in national assessments and transitions to further education and work. These include key performance measures reflecting the educational goals for young Australians and measures reflecting COAG targets and indicators drawn from the performance reporting framework of the NEA.
Under the NEA, which came into effect in January 2009², the Australian state, territory and federal governments agreed to streamlined and consistent reports on national progress including the continued publication of an annual national report on the outcomes of schooling in Australia.
A variety of other statistical information on Australian schooling in 2012 and for the five-year period 2008–12 is included in the Additional Statistics tables.
This is the fourth annual National Report on Schooling in Australia to address the Melbourne Declaration and the NEA.
The report has been compiled by ACARA as required under its charter. The National Report on Schooling in Australia 2009, 2010 and 2011 are available on the ACARA website. Editions prior to 2009 are available on the SCSEEC website.
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¹ The (COAG) Education Council replaced the Standing Council on School Education and Early Childhood (SCSEEC) in July 2014. SCSEEC replaced the former Ministerial Council for Education, Early Childhood Development and Youth Affairs (MCEECDYA) as the Ministerial Council with responsibility for schooling in Australia in January 2012. In this report, references to the council of Australian Education Ministers in 2012 are to SCSEEC. Historical references are to MCEECDYA, or to its predecessor until July 2009, the Ministerial Council on Education, Employment, Training and Youth Affairs (MCEETYA).
² A review of the National Education Agreement performance framework was undertaken in 2012 and a revised agreement to reflect the outcomes of the review came into effect in July 2012. References and links to the NEA in this report are to the revised agreement.