Regional school students more likely to not finish high school, data reveals

Students in regional schools are more likely to ditch Year 12 than those in metropolitan schools alarming new data reveals, with a campaign calling for students to complete their final year.

Alma restaurant owner Jesse Hughes left school at year 10 in 2006 and has since become a successful Geelong restaurant owner. Picture: Glenn Ferguson

Students in regional schools are more likely to ditch Year 12 than those in metropolitan schools alarming new data reveals, with a campaign calling for students to complete their final year.

Research by the Community Council for Australia revealed one in three students in regional or remote areas did not finish Year 12 or an equivalent by the age of 19, which is higher than the one in five students in metropolitan areas.

The Council’s campaign – It Takes a Village: Education is everyone’s business – urges communities to realise the importance of finishing school.

Community Council for Australia’s CEO David Crosbie said students were falling through the cracks in the education system across the country, with regional students most at risk.

“Many schoolchildren are simply slipping quietly out of school … with no real option for the future,” he said.

“This costs us all. It costs the student, the family, the community and the economy.”

According to the report, just one child not completing Year 12 costs around $1 million over a lifetime, with $300,000 being a direct cost to the government.

Mr Crosbie said there were numerous factors which contributed to the low completion rates in regional areas.

“Often the range of educational opportunities is more limited — the types of schools people can attend and the subjects they can do.

“People in regional areas often have other responsibilities, working as carers or helping in family businesses, which make it harder for them to devote full-time study to Year 12.

“In many regional areas we tend to encourage kids in activities such as sport and we don’t always have the same enthusiasm and community support for academia, arts and technology.

“As a community we need to value education more and get kids to aspire beyond their immediate horizons and dream really big.”

The data shows completion rates improved by the age of 25, with 80 per cent of regional young people choosing to either complete their final year or study an equivalent.

Former Highton student Jesse Hughes left school at Year 10 in 2006 to become a chef. He went on to study a Certificate II in Commercial Cookery at The Gordon and now owns ALMA restaurant in Geelong.

The 28-year-old said he might have opted to finish his last two years of school, if they had more technical subjects available.

“I was determined to be a chef so I had the blind willingness to leave,” Mr Hughes said.

“At the time I never had the opportunity to do those technical things at school, otherwise I would have stayed.”

The Smith Family CEO Dr Lisa O’Brien said research showed people had a better chance at succeeding in their future endeavours, if they completed Year 12.

“While, of course, there are a range of reasons young people leave school before finishing Year 12, the evidence shows that completing Year 12, or the equivalent, increases the chances of young people getting a job or continuing with further study.”

“That’s not just good for the young person themselves — that’s good for our society as a whole.”

Originally published as Regional school students more likely to not finish high school, data reveals