Australia Yearbook - 2001

408 Year Book Australia 2001
%
100
80
60
40
20
10.5 PERCENTAGE OF NON-GOVERNMENT SCHOOLS, STUDENTS,
AND SCHOOL STAFF (FTE(a))—1949 and 1999
1949
1999
0
Schools Students Teaching staff
(a) Full-time teaching staff plus full-time equivalent of part-time teaching staff.
Source: Schools, Australia (4221.0); Official Year Book of the Commonwealth of Australia No. 39,
1953 (Commonwealth Bureau of Census and Statistics).
Other schooling arrangements
Children may be exempted from the requirement
of compulsory attendance at a school if they live
too far from a school or have a disability.
Some Indigenous children in remote areas of
the Northern Territory, who live in small
decentralised communities such as out-stations
or homeland centres, receive schooling from
Indigenous teaching assistants supported by
visiting teachers from established schools.
Over time, various schemes have extended
schooling to remote or sparsely settled areas,
and addressed the needs of minority groups.
From 1867, New South Wales had ‘provisional’
and ‘half-time’ schools in localities with fewer
than 25 school-aged children. Itinerant teachers
were allocated teaching rounds, going from
house to house, in sparsely settled areas.
Development of the ‘pedal radio’ after World
War II made Schools of the Air possible for
isolated pastoral families. Today these children
receive tuition through a variety of educational
delivery mechanisms, including distance
education, Schools of the Air, and use of
computer and facsimile technologies.
For children with physical or developmental
disabilities, ‘special education’ is available in
all States and Territories. Special education is
provided by government and non-government
authorities in special classes or units in regular
schools, by withdrawal from regular classes for
periods of intensive assistance by special staff,
or in specialist schools. In all States and
Territories, and particularly in New South Wales,
Queensland and Victoria, parents have formed
voluntary organisations to establish additional
schools catering for their children’s special needs.
The Commonwealth Government provides funds
to States and Territories, non-government
authorities and community groups to assist in
the provision of services and upgrading of special
education facilities.
Boarding facilities are available at some
non-government schools, mainly in the larger
towns and cities. A small number of government
schools, in particular those catering for groups
such as Indigenous people, have residential
hostels close by.
Apparent retention rates
Apparent retention rates are important measures
of the performance of education systems and
related government policies. The apparent
retention rate is an estimate of the percentage
of students of a given cohort who continued to
a particular level or year of education. In graph
10.6, apparent retention rates have been
calculated for full-time students who continued
to Year 12 from their respective cohort at the
commencement of their secondary schooling.
The apparent retention rate of secondary
school students to Year 12 fell from 77% in
1993 to 72% in 1999. As in previous years, the
apparent retention rate for female students
(79%) was higher than the corresponding rate
for males (66%).
Apparent retention rates increased continually
over the period 1967 to 1992, when they peaked
at 77%. Year 12 was not universally available in
government secondary schools in 1967. In that
year only 15% of female students completed
Year 12. In government schools, the female