By Robyn Grace and Lucy Carroll
Australian teenagers are more likely to feel unsafe and bullied at school than their international peers, as a new global report card reveals a growing wellbeing crisis for girls and high levels of anxiety attached to digital devices.
The latest analysis of results from the OECD Program for International Student Assessment (PISA) shows Australian 15-year-olds had higher exposure to bullying than almost all comparative countries.
Girls’ wellbeing is a particular concern in the latest analysis of Australia’s PISA data.Credit: iStock
Girls feel less safe at school than boys, are less resistant to stress and one in five say they feel anxious if they don’t have immediate access to their digital device.
The report, released on Tuesday by the Australian Council for Educational Research, found the nation’s classrooms are among the most disruptive in the world.
ACER senior research fellow Lisa De Bortoli said the educational divide is particularly stark between genders and levels of socioeconomic advantage.
“The results show girls and boys experience education differently,” she said. “Two-thirds of girls and just over 70 per cent of boys agree that teachers show an interest in their student learning. But for stress, 26 per cent of girls say they can handle stress compared with 44 per cent of boys.”
Glenn Fahey, research fellow at the Centre for Independent Studies, said there was now no doubt Australian schools were in the grip of a behaviour and wellbeing crisis.
“Though boys are disproportionately impacted by deteriorating behaviour, it’s girls who are struggling most with wellbeing,” he said.
“This is a damning outlook of students’ life in Australian schools and suggests there is a long road to educational recovery for our school systems,” Fahey said.
The results follow a worrying PISA report into academic results in December, which found Australian teens had fallen almost two full academic years behind those who went to school in the early 2000s, with nearly half of pupils failing to reach national standards in maths and reading.
The fresh analysis also underscores Australia’s growing equity gap. Students from advantaged backgrounds reported a more favourable disciplinary climate and feeling safer at school, while those from disadvantaged backgrounds and First Nations students reported higher levels of bullying and greater educational shortages.
Students in Catholic and independent schools reported a more favourable disciplinary climate, less exposure to bullying and reported feeling safer than those in government schools.
Students at public schools reported higher levels of perceived educational and instructional leadership than those at private schools.
Chronic teacher shortages have contributed to classroom disruptions, with 61 per cent of students attending schools where the principal reported a lack of teaching staff. Students in regional areas were more likely to report greater exposure to bullying, teacher shortages and a lack of educational material.
As classrooms have become crowded with screens and states mull restricting social media usage for children, 15 per cent of Australian students said they felt nervous or anxious when they didn’t have their digital devices nearby.
One in 10 said they felt pressured to be online and answer messages when in class.
Girls rated themselves worse than boys on every measure of stress resistance. Seventy-one per cent said they got nervous easily, compared to 39 per cent of boys, while 75 per cent said they felt nervous about approaching exams, compared to 49 per cent of boys.
Exposure to bullying has decreased for all countries since the previous PISA testing in 2018 – possibly because schools were still returning to normal after COVID in 2022 – but Australian students reported higher levels than all comparison countries except Latvia.
Australia’s reporting of disciplinary climate was one of the least favourable among the comparison countries.
Students in NSW and Victoria reported a more favourable disciplinary climate than students in Tasmania, South Australia, the ACT and Queensland. Victoria, NSW and the ACT also reported the lowest levels of bullying.
De Bortoli said students in high-performing countries had a far greater sense of belonging and less exposure to bullying, which could range from teasing to being threatened.
The latest analysis also measured curiosity for the first time, with results showing students who have high levels of curiosity performed better in maths.
Australian students demonstrated moderate levels of perseverance, with 60 per cent of students saying they applied extra effort when work becomes challenging. One in four principals said parents discussed their child’s progress with a teacher on their own initiative.
The latest analysis is based on OECD testing and survey data taken by about 690,000 students aged 15 from 81 countries, including 13,437 from Australia.
Fahey said it was now well accepted that Australia’s classrooms were among the most disruptive and disorderly in the world, highlighting the need to “go back to basics” to better prepare teachers with evidence-based strategies for managing rowdy classrooms.
“Countless students are suffering as a result of this and putting Australian students at an international disadvantage,” he said. “Indigenous children are tragically suffering from alarming levels of bullying and concerns for safety in school.”
“It’s jarring that so many children don’t feel safe school, while some schools are compelled by feel-good wellbeing gurus to engage in well-meaning, but ultimately ineffective, practices,” Fahey said.
Federal Education Minister Jason Clare said the government was investing in short courses and improving teacher training to ensure current and future teachers were taught how to manage disruptive classrooms.
“All students and staff should feel safe and be safe at school,” he said. “Disruptive and anti-social behaviour hurts everyone – our students, our teachers and our principals.”
The 2024-25 Victorian budget allocated an additional $15.8 million to continue the School Wide Positive Behaviour Support program in more than 400 schools.
A government spokesperson said Victorian students reported a high sense of belonging at school, among the lowest levels of bullying in Australia and a low rate of disruption due to teacher shortages.
A NSW spokesperson said the PISA report highlighted the urgent need to tackle the teacher shortage. It also vindicated the NSW decision to ban mobile phones in all public schools. NSW has also overhauled its school behaviour policy since the 2022 PISA survey.
“The policy now strikes the right balance in maintaining safe, positive and respectful classrooms for all students and staff,” the spokesperson said.
PISA is conducted every three years by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) to test the knowledge of 15-year-olds. In addition to academic results, the latest survey collected contextual data on students’ background and school experience. In Australia, 743 schools participated in the survey in 2022.
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