Education in Australia

Education in Australia

Australian Government
Minister for Education	Jason Clare
National education budget (2015)
Budget	A$111.8 billion[1] 5.9 percent of GDP
General details
Primary languages	English
System type	State[2]
Established compulsory education	1830s[3] 1870s[3]
Literacy (2003)
Total	99%[4]
Male	99%[4]
Female	99%[4]
Enrollment (2021)
Total	20.4% of population[5][6]
Primary	2.0 million[7]
Secondary	1.6 million[7]
Post secondary	1.1 million[7]
Attainment (2023)
Secondary diploma	79.1%[8]

Education in Australia encompasses the sectors of early childhood education^[9] (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).^[10] Regulation and funding of education is primarily the responsibility of the States and territories;^[2] however, the Australian Government also plays a funding role.^[11][12]

Education in Australia is compulsory between the ages of four, five, or six^[13] and fifteen, sixteen or seventeen, depending on the state or territory and the date of birth.^[14]

For primary and secondary education, government schools educate approximately 64 per cent of Australian students, with approximately 36 per cent in non-government schools.^[8] At the tertiary level, the majority of Australia's universities are public,^[15] and student fees are subsidised through a student loan program where payment becomes due when debtors reach a certain income level, known as HECS.^[16] 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.^[17] For primary and secondary schools, a national Australian Curriculum has been progressively developed and implemented since 2010.^[18][19]

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.^[20] 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.^[21][22]

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.^{[23][24][25][26]}

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.^[27]