State Government wants to track school dropouts for job and training outcomes

STUDENTS would be tracked after leaving public schools in a bid to improve dire retention rates at some schools, as new stats can be revealed showing the SA’s worst retention rates.

• School documents show 60 per cent drop out before SACE ends
• More than one in three fail to finish SACE

STUDENTS would be tracked when dropping out of the public system in a State Government bid to improve dire retention rates at some schools.

Education Minister John Gardner said he wanted to work with his department on better data collection to determine the employment and training outcomes of students who leave school early, to make sure they are not “slipping through the net”.

Principals say some country schools are already tracking students for several years after they leave.

The statewide retention rate compares numbers of Year 12s with Year 8s four years earlier, giving a crude measure of whether kids stayed in school but not whether they completed their SACE.

It has tipped over 100pc in each of the past three years as a result of students entering the public system from interstate, overseas and the private sector.

But that healthy figure masks the situation at individual schools, 16 of which, all in regional areas, have rates of 50 per cent or under.

Education Department figures supplied to The Advertiser also show more than 60 schools, including many around Adelaide, have retention rates no greater than 75 per cent.

While the department warns the figures must be treated with caution for small schools, as minor enrolment changes can result in large retention rate shifts, SA Area Schools Leaders Association president Chris Roberts said retention was “certainly an issue for us”.

“A lot of our area schools are small or medium in size, so to offer a comprehensive secondary or senior secondary curriculum is challenging at times,” he said, adding schools were collaborating to run classes online.

The Advertiser last week reported that a document obtained under Freedom of Information showed just 60 per cent of high school students complete the SACE.

Mr Gardner said he was concerned about students leaving school “without a job or training pathway or high school certificate”, but it could be a “positive outcome” if they were heading for apprenticeships or other employment.

The State Government is offering bonuses to employers whose apprentices also complete their SACE.

Mr Roberts said there needed to be better incentives for good teachers to move to the country, as it was particularly hard to staff maths and science classes, and parents needed confidence in local schools so they would not feel they needed to send their children to Adelaide.

Retention rates are crude because they are influenced by factors such as students moving to private schools, including country students coming to Adelaide boarding schools, repeating students and those who switch to distance education.