The Survey of Education and Work data indicate that 87.8% of young people (15-19 years) were fully engaged in school, work or further education in 2022 in SA (89.6% in 2018).

Data Source: ABS, Survey of Education and Work

The percentage of young people (15-19 years) with disability that were partially or fully engaged in school, work or further education in SA was 81.5% in 2021, down from 84.8% in 2016 (81.7% in 2021 and 79.9% in 2016 nationally).

Data Source: ABS, Census

Student attendance at school can be measured in multiple ways:

• Attendance rate: the number of actual full-time equivalent student-days attended by full-time students in Year 1 to Year 10 in Semester 1 as a percentage of the total number of possible student-days attended in Semester 1.
• Attendance level: the proportion of full-time students in Year 1 to Year 10 whose attendance rate in Semester 1 is equal to, or greater than, 90%.
• Actual Retention rate: calculated by taking the count of students enrolled in the public education system at one point in time and finding the proportion of these same students still enrolled at a later point in time.
• Apparent retention rate: Different to ‘Actual retention rate’ as the same individual students are not tracked over time, but instead show the net change in enrolments between two points in time.

The framework reports on the attendance level.

• Click the legend to include other states.
• All states and territories have recorded a stark drop in attendance since COVID.
• SA has subceeded the national average in attendance level since 2015.
• The attendance level for all states and terrories have been slowly decreasing between 2015 to 2019, before COVID.
• In 2023, the attendance level for SA students was 59.7% in comparison to national average of 61.6%.
• SA has had a higher percentage of attendance level in comparison with NT since 2015, and Qld, WA and Tas in 2019 and 2022.

Notes:
– School attendance data for 2020 has not been published due to inconsistencies in the data as a result of the varying health advice and schooling arrangements across the country in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.
– Comparison should not be made between the states in 2021 due to different COVID lockdowns and state government strategies.

In 2023:

• ICSEA stands for the Index of Community Socio-Educational Advantage and is a socio-economic index used by the Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority (ACARA) to make fair and meaningful comparisons between schools based on the level of educational advantage or disadvantage that students bring to their academic studies. Each quarter holds 25% of Australian schools: the 1st quarter describes students who have the highest educational disadvantage and the 4th quarter describes students with the lowest educational disadvantage.
• Only 43% of students from the highest educational disadvantage (ICSEA = 1st Quarter) category attended school at least 90% of the first semester, in comparison to 71% of students from the lowest educational disadvantage (ICSEA = 4th Quarter).
• Students who attend schools in regional and remote areas of SA had a lower attendance level than individuals from metro schools: on average 50% for regional and remote students and 28% for students from very remote schools vs 62% from metropolitan schools.
• Independent and Catholic schools had a higher attendance level in comparison to government schools: 68% and 63% vs 56%, respectively.

• Illustrating the decrease in attendance level across location of students, with the addition of the same pattern emerging that more students attend primary school years (1-6 years) than high school years (7-10 years).
• The difference between primary and secondary school attendance level decreases as moving further away from metropolitan schools.

• Illustrating the decrease in attendance level across school sector, with the addition of the same pattern emerging that more students attend primary school years (1-6 years) than high school years (7-10 years).
• The difference between primary and secondary school attendance level is lesser at independent schools, compared to government schools.

Data Source: Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority (ACARA)

The percentage of young people completing a senior certificate of education qualification, or equivalent by 19 years in SA was 93.4% in 2021 (92.0% in 2016).

Data Source: Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority (ACARA)