1301.0 - Year Book Australia, 2003

ARCHIVED ISSUE Released at 11:30 AM (CANBERRA TIME) 24/01/2003

Page tools: Print

Contents >> Education and Training >> Indigenous education and training

Indigenous school students

In 2001 there were 78,943 Indigenous students attending primary schooling and 36,522 Indigenous students attending secondary schooling.

Most Indigenous students (88%) attended government schools in 2001. Of the remainder attending non-government schools, most were attending Catholic schools (68%) (table 10.31). The increase in ungraded students between primary and secondary education is mostly attributable to the classification of secondary-age students in Northern Territory remote Homeland Learning Centres as ungraded. This is due to the difficulty of classifying such students in terms of the normal secondary grade structure.

10.31 FULL-TIME INDIGENOUS SCHOOL STUDENTS - August 2001
			Non-government schools

Level/year of education		Government schools	Catholic	Other	Total	All schools

Primary
	Pre-year 1(a)	6,056	474	126	600	6,656
	Year 1	10,210	881	269	1,150	11,360
	Year 2	9,943	833	260	1,093	11,036
	Year 3	9,872	866	304	1,170	11,042
	Year 4	9,792	819	260	1,079	10,871
	Year 5	9,354	781	274	1,055	10,409
	Year 6	9,195	781	290	1,071	10,266
	Year 7 (Qld, SA, WA, NT)	5,241	441	205	646	5,887
	Ungraded	1,039	160	217	377	1,416
	Total	70,702	6,036	2,205	8,241	78,943
Secondary
	Year 7 (NSW, Vic., Tas., ACT)	3,306	243	79	322	3,628
	Year 8	7,361	777	551	1,328	8,689
	Year 9	6,584	762	468	1,230	7,814
	Year 10	5,522	710	449	1,159	6,681
	Year 11	3,579	478	282	760	4,339
	Year 12	2,076	352	192	544	2,620
	Ungraded	2,121	238	392	630	2,751
	Total	30,549	3,560	2,413	5,973	36,522
Total		101,251	9,596	4,618	14,214	115,465

(a) Pre-year 1 does not include Qld and WA.
Source: Schools, Australia, 2001 (4221.0).

Graph 10.32 shows a decline in government school attendance from Year 1 onwards in 2001. The number of Indigenous students attending non-government schools remained relatively stable across the early grades, followed by a slight increase in Year 8 students, then a decline until Year 12.

Graph - 10.32 Full-time indigenous school students - august 2001

Table 10.33 shows an increase in the number of Indigenous students between 1991 and 2001 from 72,249 to 115,465. Over this period, the number of Indigenous students attending each level of education increased in every state and territory. New South Wales and Queensland experienced the largest increases in Indigenous school attendance, by 15,597 and 11,625 respectively.
In 1991 and 2001 there were more Indigenous males in primary schooling than females. In secondary schooling, there were more Indigenous males in 1991 and more Indigenous females in 2001.

10.33 FULL-TIME INDIGENOUS SCHOOL STUDENTS(a), By level of education
		NSW	Vic.	Qld	SA	WA	Tas.	NT	ACT(b)	Aust.

PRIMARY

Males
	1991	6,080	897	7,102	1,542	4,426	621	4,341	152	25,161
	2001	11,366	2,060	11,355	2,528	6,327	1,441	5,004	317	40,398
Females
	1991	5,670	871	6,585	1,488	4,335	611	4,261	132	23,953
	2001	10,842	2,041	10,850	2,474	5,884	1,365	4,776	313	38,545
Students
	1991	11,750	1,768	13,687	3,030	8,761	1,232	8,602	284	49,114
	2001	22,208	4,101	22,205	5,002	12,211	2,806	9,780	630	78,943

SECONDARY

Males
	1991	3,339	613	3,413	582	1,864	412	1,298	81	11,602
	2001	5,802	1,033	4,933	869	2,597	946	1,726	173	18,079
Females
	1991	3,224	593	3,422	651	1,884	416	1,272	71	11,533
	2001	5,900	1,093	5,009	975	2,704	902	1,678	182	18,443
Students
	1991	6,563	1,206	6,835	1,233	3,748	828	2,570	152	23,135
	2001	11,702	2,126	9,942	1,844	5,301	1,848	3,404	355	36,522

TOTAL

Males
	1991	9,418	1,510	10,515	2,124	6,290	1,033	5,639	233	36,763
	2001	17,168	3,093	16,288	3,397	8,924	2,387	6,730	490	58,477
Females
	1991	8,894	1,464	10,007	2,139	6,219	1,027	5,533	203	35,486
	2001	16,742	3,134	15,859	3,449	8,588	2,267	6,454	495	56,988
Students
	1991	18,313	2,974	20,522	4,263	12,509	2,060	11,172	436	72,249
	2001	33,910	6,227	32,147	6,846	17,512	4,654	13,184	985	115,465

(a) At August Schools Census date each year. (b) Includes one government primary school in Jervis Bay Territory with 38 students (14 males, 24 females).
Source: Schools, Australia (4221.0).

Indigenous VET students

In 2001, 53% of Indigenous VET clients were male. In all geographic regions, the number of male Indigenous clients outnumbered their female counterparts (table 10.34). Indigenous VET clients were not as strongly affiliated with urban locations when compared to all VET clients. Some 27% of Indigenous clients were located in capital cities compared with 55% of all clients, and a further 27% of Indigenous clients were located in remote areas compared with 4% of all clients.

10.34 INDIGENOUS VET(a) CLIENTS(b), Vocational and preparatory courses(c) - 2001
			Geographic region of client address

		Units	Capital city	Other metropolitan	Rural	Remote	Other	Total

Indigenous clients
	Males	'000	8.3	1.7	11.7	8.5	0.5	30.7
	Females	'000	7.1	1.7	10.5	7.4	0.5	27.2
	Persons	'000	15.4	3.4	22.2	15.9	1.1	58.0
All Indigenous clients		%	26.6	5.9	38.2	27.4	1.9	100.0
All clients		%	55.2	7.3	31.2	3.9	2.4	100.0

(a) Includes all VET delivery by TAFE and other government providers, registered community providers, some VET delivered in schools, and publicly funded delivery by private providers. Fee-for-service VET delivery by private providers has been excluded. (b) A client is any individual participating in a specific enrolment or training contract with a specific organisation. (c) Courses leading to a vocational award.
Source: National Centre for Vocational Education Research, data available on request.

Since clients may be enrolled in more than one VET course, the number of course enrolments is greater than the total number of clients. There were 78,100 Indigenous course enrolments in 2001 compared with 58,000 Indigenous clients.

There was an overall increase of 107% in Indigenous VET enrolments between 1995 and 2001 (table 10.35). While the largest increase in enrolments was in the field of Arts, humanities and social sciences (6,000 enrolments), the most rapid rate of growth over that period was in Law and legal studies where enrolments increased by more than 400%.

In 2001 there were more Indigenous enrolments (26%) in multi-field VET courses (including school courses offered in VET institutions) than in other courses. Arts, humanities and social sciences was the second most popular field of study, accounting for 12% of Indigenous enrolments.

10.35 INDIGENOUS VET(a) COURSE ENROLMENTS, Vocational and preparatory courses(b)
	1995	2001
Field of study	’000	’000

Land and marine resources, animal husbandry	2.5	6.7
Architecture, building	1.5	3.7
Arts, humanities and social sciences	3.4	9.4
Business, administration and economics	4.8	9.1
Education	2.2	4.5
Engineering and surveying	2.6	6.0
Health, community services	2.4	8.4
Law, legal studies	0.1	0.5
Science	0.9	3.1
Veterinary science, animal care	-	0.1
Services, hospitality and transportation	2.6	6.6
VET multi-field education	14.8	20.0
Total	37.8	78.1

(a) Includes all VET delivery by TAFE and other government providers, registered community providers, some VET delivered in schools, and publicly funded delivery by private providers. Enrolments in fee-for-service VET courses of private providers have been excluded. (b) Courses leading to a vocational award.
Source: National Centre for Vocational Education Research, data available on request.

Indigenous higher education students

In 2001, 7,342 Indigenous students were attending higher education. Females comprised 65% of Indigenous higher education students, compared to 55% of the total higher education student population.

Table 10.36 shows the distribution of Indigenous higher education students across states and territories in 2001. New South Wales, Queensland and Western Australia had the largest number of Indigenous students, with the Australian Capital Territory and Tasmania having the smallest number.

The proportion of Indigenous students who were females was the highest in Northern Territory, Western Australia and South Australia (70%, 67% and 65% respectively). The Australian Capital Territory had the least differential between the number of male and female Indigenous students attending higher education institutions (53% were females).

10.36 INDIGENOUS HIGHER EDUCATION STUDENTS - 2001
	Commencing Indigenous students			All Indigenous students

	Males	Females	Persons	Males	Females	Persons

New South Wales	282	532	814	727	1,237	1,964
Victoria	142	233	375	293	477	770
Queensland	210	391	601	527	876	1,403
South Australia	88	107	195	159	294	453
Western Australia	238	514	752	442	899	1,341
Tasmania	61	54	115	103	131	234
Northern Territory	181	382	563	236	557	793
Australian Capital Territory	25	32	57	64	71	135
Multi-state(a)	20	74	94	53	196	249
Total	1,247	2,319	3,566	2,604	4,738	7,342

(a) Multi-state institutions have campuses in more than one state and/or territory.
Source: Department of Education, Science and Training, ‘Students 2001: Selected Higher Education Statistics’.

Graph 10.37 illustrates the increase in Indigenous participation in higher education over the past decade. Between 1991 and 2001 the number of Indigenous students increased by 53% from 4,807 to 7,342. The greatest annual increase of Indigenous students was between 1993 and 1994 when the number of students increased by 686 or 12%.

Graph - 10.37 All indigenous higher education students

Table 10.38 shows that in 2001 the fields of study with the largest numbers of Indigenous student enrolments were Society and culture (35%), Education (20%) and Health (14%).

10.38 INDIGENOUS HIGHER EDUCATION STUDENTS, By broad field of study and level of course - 2001
Field of study	Postgraduate degree	Postgraduate diploma/graduate certificate	Bachelor degree	Associate degree/diploma and advanced diploma	Other award courses	Enabling courses	Total

Natural and physical sciences	18	9	196	1	26	-	250
Information technology	6	3	127	2	-	-	138
Engineering and related technologies	5	1	92	2	-	-	100
Architecture and building	5	2	44	-	-	-	51
Agriculture, environment & related studies	10	14	89	27	2	43	185
Health	52	74	663	213	2	3	1,007
Education	81	84	959	317	7	10	1,458
Management and commerce	65	41	483	64	7	-	660
Society and culture	169	39	1,759	436	18	178	2,599
Creative arts	27	11	340	72	-	44	494
Food, hospitality and personal services	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
Mixed field programmes	-	-	3	2	6	636	647
Non-award	-	-	-	-	-	-	14
Total(a)	438	278	4,494	1,136	68	914	7,342

(a) The data take into account the coding of combined courses to two fields of study. As a consequence, counting both fields of study for combined courses means that the data in the total row may be less than the sum of the data aggregated down each column.
Source: Department of Education, Science and Training, ‘Students 2001: Selected Higher Education Statistics’.