Rural retention: Student graduation rates on the slide

The number of rural and regional students graduating Year 12 is slipping, according to national student data.

The number of rural and regional students graduating from Year 12 has dropped dramatically, with less than 70 per cent of regional students completing secondary school.

And the gap between rural and metro students finishing Year 12 is widening, while national retention rates for students Years 10 to 12 have dropped to the lowest in 10 years.

Data from the Australian Curriculum Assessment and Reporting Authority released this week shows the number of students in regional Australia attaining Year 12 is trending down.

Outer regional attainment rates dropped 5 per cent in just 12 months, from 74.4 per cent in 2021 to 69.2 per cent in 2022.

Inner regional attainment also declined 4 per cent in a year, from 71 per cent in 2021 to 67.6 per cent in 2022.

Remote and very remote Australia has fared even worse, with Year 12 certification rates diving from 63.2 per cent in 2021 to 55.5 per cent in 2022.

Those figures stand in contrast to the rates in major cities, where 79.4 per cent of students finished Year 12 in 2022, down on 82.1 per cent in 2021.

Year 10 to 12 retention rates nationally have declined to 78.7 per cent in 2023, from 79 per cent in 2022.

Meanwhile, new data showed teacher numbers were beginning to rally after declining during the Covid-19 pandemic, with full-time equivalent staff nationally sitting at more than 471,800, up on the 447,975 reported in 2021.

Country Education Partnership chief executive Mark McLay said the drop off in regional students completing year 12 wasn’t necessarily concerning, if data could show that students were leaving school to pursue trades, go to TAFE or work on the family farm.

“It’s a concern if their destination is unknown or if they’re just leaving school, but it’s more about a successful destination and that’s the data that needs to be tracked,” he said.

“The drop off in completing year 12 could be concern, but it depends on the actual data of where young people are ending up.”

Mr McLay said that staffing in rural Victoria is their “number one issue”.

In January, The Weekly Times reported more than 300 teaching positions were vacant at government schools across regional Victoria.

The Victorian government announced in 2022 a $45.2 million funding package to attract teachers to schools in rural and regional Victoria and support them to stay.

Mr McLay said the funding has attracted teachers to fill rural positions, but questioned whether they were coming from the cities, or just moving around rural locations.

“The financial incentives have seen teachers fill (empty) positions, but there’s been a bit of ‘rob Peter to pay Paul’ in terms of people going rural to rural,” he said.

“We are involved in placing 200 pre-service teachers to do their placement in a rural area, so hopefully we will see the benefits of that over the next two or three years … but it’s too early to see the impact of that.”