CLOSING THE GAP

The AEDC highlights what is working well and
what needs to be improved or developed to
support children and their families and in 2015, it
collected data on 17,351 Indigenous children.
In 2015, Indigenous children were almost twice as likely
as non-Indigenous children to be developmentally
vulnerable in health and wellbeing, social competence,
communication and emotional maturity. This increases
to nearly four times more likely to be developmentally
vulnerable in language and cognitive skills. The gap in
this domain has decreased from 20.7 percentage points
in 2009 to 14.5 percentage points in 2015. Findings
from the AEDC inform early childhood national policy.
Evidence shows that participation in preschool has a
significant positive impact on vocabulary for Indigenous
students in the following two years (Arcos Holzinger
& Biddle, 2015). Three to five years after preschool
enrolment, positive impacts included developmental
outcomes as well as reading and maths achievements.
Importantly, evidence shows 15-year-old students who
had attended at least a year of preschool outperformed
students who had not, even after accounting for
socioeconomic background (OECD, 2014).
WHAT THE DATA TELLS US
The baseline for this target is 2015. In 2015,
87 per cent of Indigenous children were enrolled in early
childhood education in the year before full-time school,
compared to the target benchmark of 95 per cent
(Figure 3). Data to measure progress against this
target will be available for next year’s report.
In 2015, the information available suggests that all
Indigenous and non-Indigenous children were enrolled
in early childhood education in the year before fulltime
school in Western Australia, South Australia
and the Australian Capital Territory (Figure 3). Early
childhood education enrolment rates for Indigenous
children in the other states and territories were
below the required benchmark of 95 per cent,
although Victoria and Tasmania were very close.
Of Indigenous children enrolled in early childhood
education in the year before full-time school in 2015,
92 per cent had attended 10 early childhood education
in 2015 (Figure 4), with the highest attendance rates in
Tasmania (98 per cent) and South Australia (97 per cent).
9 Proportions are over 100 per cent but displayed as 100 per cent
for the following: Indigenous children in WA (105 per cent); SA (112
per cent); and ACT (124 per cent). Non-Indigenous children in Vic.
(103 per cent); QLD (108 per cent); WA (101 per cent); SA (103 per
cent); Tas. (102 per cent); ACT (109 per cent); and NT (106 per cent).
10 Present for at least one hour during the reference period.
The census date for the 2015 Collection is Friday 7 August
2015, with the one- week reference period spanning 3 of
August to 9 August 2015. Some jurisdictions may adopt a
two-week reference period, which means the permissible
period spans 27 July to 16 August 2015 inclusive.
Figure 3: Enrolment in early childhood education in the year before full-time school,
by Indigenous status and state/territory, 2015 (per cent) 9
Per cent
100
90
80
70
60
50
40
30
20
10
0
100 100 100 100 100 100 100 100 100 100
94
94
98
85
85
84
87
77
NSW VIC QLD SA WA TAS NT ACT Australia
Indigenous
Non-Indigenous
Source: ABS unpublished, Preschool Education, Australia 2015; Australian Demographic Statistics, June 2015; Births, Australia, 2015; Estimates
and Projections, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Australians, 2001 to 2026; Schools, Australia 2015.
•28• CLOSING THE GAP: PRIME MINISTER'S REPORT 2017