More children starting school ‘developmentally vulnerable’: census

The percentage of Australian children starting school with poor emotional regulation and social skills is the highest since records began in 2009.

The percentage of children starting school with poor emotional regulation and social skills is the highest since records began in 2009. Picture: iStock

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The percentage of Australian children starting school with poor emotional regulation and social skills is the highest since records began in 2009, a national government census has found.

Education Minister Jason Clare attributed the drop across all measures since 2021 to the “impact of the pandemic on our kids”.

The Australian Early Development Census, commissioned by the Department of Education every three years, surveyed more than 288,400 children in their first year of full-time schooling and 16,700 teachers nationally, measuring children’s development in the five domains of physical health, social competence, emotional maturity, language/cognitive skills, and communication skills/general knowledge.

The census showed that kids in the Northern Territory started school at a developmental dis­advantage compared to other states, with 40.8 per cent of NT children “developmentally vulnerable” – meaning they faced significant challenges in their development – in at least one domain. The ACT was the next closest at 28.1 per cent, while NSW had the fewest percentage of kids in that category at 21.8 per cent.

Education Minister Jason Clare. Picture: Monique Harmer/NewsWire

More than a third of the country’s poorest kids started school developmentally vulnerable in at least one area, a significant increase since both 2009 and 2021.

The developmental vulnerability gap between the most disadvantaged and least dis­advan­taged communities also increased since 2009, up to 18.5 percentage points in 2024. There was a large gap between the most remote students and metropolitan kids.

The percentage of children who were developmentally vulnerable across Australia increased significantly across all five domains from 2021 to 2024, but was overall up on 2009.

Children were more vulnerable than ever when it came to social competence and emotional mat­urity, with one in 10 students experiencing several challenges getting along with kids, taking responsibility for their actions and following class rules, as well as regulating emotions including being prone to aggression, disobedience, inattention and impulsivity.

Positively, the percentage of First Nations children who were developmentally vulnerable in the communication and language domains decreased significantly.

Mr Clare said the increase across all five domains “shows the impact of the pandemic on our kids … These are children who were born in 2018 and 2019 whose early years were significantly affected by Covid and lockdowns.

“This data also shows the importance of early education to prepare children for school. It shows children who attended preschool were 1.5 times more likely to be developmentally on track.”

Mr Clare said it showed the importance of the government’s commitment that all children had access to three days a week of subsidised early education and care, which begins in January this year.

Opposition spokeswoman on education and early learning Zoe McKenzie said “since the last time the AEDC was conducted – in 2021, while the Coalition was still in power – our children’s development has fallen backward on every count.”

Opposition education spokesman Jonno Duniam said regional and more disadvantaged kids “deserve the same opportunities” as everyone else. “I don’t think any Australian accepts that it is OK that their developmental progress is lagging behind,” he said.

Liberal senator Jonno Duniam.

“Rather than bleating about how much they are giving each state in federal funding, Labor must urgently address the root causes of these issues and finally start to come up with solutions to fix these dire results.”

Ros Baxter, chief executive of the largest early learning provider in the country, GoodStart Early Learning, said she was particularly worried about the most disadvantaged kids in the country who were developmentally vulnerability, saying “We are not doing the things we need for those kids”. She called the census “a clear, clarifying call about where we need to be,” adding that the Albanese government was interested in “making the right investments” in early childhood but the sector needed to build the vision.

“We see this increasing level of need in our centres,” Ms Baxter said.

“The policy focus needs to be early childhood development, combining together early maternal child health with early learning so you can have an integrated service response offering in one place.