National policy and administrative framework

• The Alice Springs (Mparntwe) Education Declaration, agreed to by the Australian Government and state and territory government education ministers in December 2019, sets the goals and directions for Australian schooling.
• The Department of Education has major responsibility for Australian Government school education programs.
• Australian Government school education programs and funding for Indigenous school students are administered by the Department of Education and the National Indigenous Australians Agency (NIAA) which has primary responsibility for Indigenous affairs.
• State and territory and Australian Government education ministers make decisions and work collaboratively on education matters through the Education Ministers Meeting, which is chaired by the Australian Government Minister for Education.
• The Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority (ACARA) is responsible for the development of the Australian Curriculum, the National Assessment Program which includes the National Assessment Program—Literacy and Numeracy (NAPLAN), and national data collection and reporting which includes My School.
• The Australian Institute for Teaching and School Leadership (AITSL) provides ‘national leadership for the Commonwealth, State and Territory Governments in promoting excellence in the profession of teaching and school leadership’. AITSL has 3 areas of focus: initial teacher education (ITE), teaching, and school leadership. AITSL has developed professional standards for teachers and principals, and accreditation standards for ITE (and maintains an accredited programs list). It also provides tools and resources for teachers and principals, and data about the teacher workforce.
• The Australian Education Research Organisation (AERO) was established in 2021 as a policy initiative under the National School Reform Agreement to undertake education research, make high-quality evidence accessible and enhance the use of evidence in Australian education.

Australian Government funding for schools

• Australian Government funding for schools is provided under the Australian Education Act 2013 (the Act) and the Australian Education Regulations 2023. Being party to a national agreement relating to school education reform is a condition of states and territories receiving financial assistance under the Act. The National School Reform Agreement (NSRA) is a joint agreement between the Australian and state and territory governments that sets out strategic reforms to improve student outcomes.
  •  The NSRA is supported by bilateral agreements between the Australian Government and state and territory governments.
  • The NSRA commenced on 1 January 2019 and was due to end on 31 December 2023. Education ministers agreed to extend the current NSRA for 12 months. The development of a new agreement will be informed by the Productivity Commission’s 2022 review and an Expert Panel’s Review to Inform a Better and Fairer Education System, which published a report in December 2023.

• The Schooling Resource Standard (SRC) estimates the total public funding a school requires to meet a student’s educational needs. The SRS was developed following the recommendations of the 2011 Review of funding for schooling (the Gonski Review).
• Under section 127 of the Act, the Minister for Education must table a report in Parliament as soon as practicable after 30 June each year on financial assistance paid to the school sector under the Act and other matters as specified. The most recent of these reports is the Australian government schools funding report 2022.
• The National School Resourcing Board was established in 2017 to undertake reviews of the Australian Government’s arrangements for school funding. It undertakes an annual review of state and territory funding contributions. Its most recent review was the Review of regional schooling resource standards loadings, reported to the Minister for Education and the Minister for Regional Education in February 2023. The Board’s other completed reviews include:
  • review of the socio-economic status (SES) score methodology (2018)
  • review of the loading for students with disability (2019)
  • review of needs-based funding requirements (2019).

Information about individual schools

• The My School website, managed by ACARA, provides information about all schools in Australia including key statistical data, financial information and school-wide NAPLAN results.
• The Australian Schools List, developed by ACARA, provides a searchable list and map of all schools and campuses in Australia obtained from state and territory school registration authorities. The information includes school location, school type and school sector attributes.
• The School Funding Estimator, available on the Department of Education website, provides estimated Australian Government recurrent funding for government schools (total and per student) for each year from 2021 to 2024 and for 2029, by which time all schools will be funded on a consistent basis by the Australian Government, including those currently funded above their target amount.

Statistics

• The Australian Bureau of Statistics publishes an annual report on Schools.
• The National report on schooling in Australia, published annually by ACARA on behalf of education ministers, provides an overview of school education in Australia, key statistics and funding information. Earlier editions (1989–2008) were published by the Ministerial Council on Education, Early Childhood Development and Youth Affairs (MCEECDYA) and its predecessors.
• The interactive National Report on Schooling in Australia data portal provides access to national data sets for schooling, including key performance measures as specified in the Measurement framework for schooling in Australia (2020).
• The annual Report on government services, published by the Productivity Commission, provides an overview of school education in Australia, key statistics and funding information—it provides comparative data for the Australian and state and territory governments.
• See also links to Indigenous school education statistical information in the ‘Indigenous school education’ section below.

Student achievement statistics

• The National Assessment Program (NAP), managed by ACARA, includes the annual NAPLAN for students in Years 3, 5, 7 and 9 and 3-yearly NAP Sample Assessments in Science Literacy, Civics and Citizenship and Information and Communication Technology (ICT) Literacy. Results are reported in a number of ways, including via the National Report on Schooling in Australia data portal, national reports for both NAP and NAPLAN, and school-level reporting via the My School website.
• The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) is a 3-yearly international survey of the reading, mathematics and science capabilities of 15-year-old students.
• Progress in International Reading and Literacy Study (PIRLS) is a 5-yearly international assessment of the reading ability of students in Year 4.
• The Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS) is a 4-yearly international survey of students in Year 4 and Year 8 in mathematics and science.

Other international statistics

• Education at a Glance: OECD Indicators provides annual comparative data on the education systems of member and partner countries of the OECD. Education data can also be accessed via OECD.Stat and OECD Data.
• The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) Institute for Statistics (UIS.Stat) provides internationally comparable data on education, science, culture, communication and information technology and demographic and socio-economic information.
• The World Bank Education Statistics (EdStats) portal contains data and analysis for education topics, drawing on data including UIS, international learning assessments, World Bank databases, and household surveys.

 Indigenous school education

• The National Indigenous Australians Agency (NIAA) and the Department of Education administer Australian Government school education programs and funding for Indigenous school students. Funding programs include:
  •  The NIAA’s Children and Schooling Programme, which provides targeted funding that complements other Australian and state and territory government programs for Indigenous school students
  • The Department of Education’s needs-based funding for students, including the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander student loading which provides extra funding on top of the base amount for each school student.

• ABSTUDY is overseen by Services Australia and provides funding to eligible Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students and apprentices.
• The National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Education Strategy 2015, agreed to by Australian and state and territory government education ministers, sets out the principles and priorities for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander education. The 2024–25 Budget (p. 87) provided $18.2 million over 4 years from 2024–25 to ‘develop a new First Nations education policy and engage with First Nations stakeholders’.
• The National Agreement on Closing the Gap commenced in July 2020. Targets 3, 5, 6 and 7 relate to education participation and attainment. Progress against the targets is reported in the Productivity Commission’s Closing the Gap dashboard. Performance data on the former National Agreement on Indigenous Reform Agreement (Closing the Gap) targets is available on the Productivity Commission’s website. Further information can be found in the Productivity Commission’s Overcoming Indigenous disadvantage report and Report on government services and the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare publication Closing the Gap targets: 2017 analysis of progress and key drivers of change.
• The National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Education Corporation is formed by peak body representatives and responsible for national collective Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander education engagement, cultural and pedagogical expertise and strategic advice to enhance the role of community-controlled educational systems.

Australian organisations

The following are some educational organisations that represent the interests of school education stakeholders and/or undertake research relating to school education.

• Association of Heads of Independent Schools of Australia
• Australian Association for Research in Education
• Australian Council for Educational Research
• Australian Council of Deans of Education
• Australian Council of State School Organisations—represents parents and citizens associations in government schools
• Australian Education Union (AEU)—includes links to state and territory AEU branches and associated bodies
• Australian Parents Council—represents the interests of parents of non‑government school students
• Australian Primary Principals Association
• Australian Secondary Principals’ Association
• Independent Education Union of Australia
• Independent Schools Australia
• National Catholic Education Commission—includes links to state and territory Catholic Education Commissions

State and territory government websites

Australian Capital Territory

• Public schools in the ACT
• Non-government schools in the ACT
• Education Directorate
• ACT Board of Senior Secondary Studies
• ACT Teacher Quality Institute

New South Wales

• NSW Public School Finder
• List of NSW non-government schools
• Department of Education
• NSW Education Standards Authority—includes responsibility for non-government schools.

Northern Territory

• NT Education Directory—Schools
• Department of Education
• Northern Territory Board of Studies
• Teacher Registration Board of the Northern Territory

Queensland

• Department of Education Schools Directory
• Department of Education
• Queensland College of Teachers
• Queensland Curriculum and Assessment Authority

South Australia

• Schools Register (government and non-government schools)
• Department for Education
• Education Standards Board
• South Australian Certificate of Education (SACE Board of SA)
• Teachers Registration Board of South Australia

Tasmania

• Tasmanian government school directory
• Non-government school directory
• Department for Education, Children and Young People
• Office of Tasmanian Assessment, Standards and Certification
• Teachers Registration Board of Tasmania
• Non-Government Schools Registration Board

Victoria

• Find a Victorian government school
• Find a Victorian non-government school—Catholic schools and independent schools
• Department of Education
• Victorian Curriculum and Assessment Authority
• Victorian Registration and Qualifications Authority
• Victorian Institute of Teaching

Western Australia

• Schools Online—directory of government schools
• Find a WA non-government school—Catholic schools and independent schools
• Department of Education
• School Curriculum and Standards Authority
• Teacher Registration Board of Western Australia

International organisations and overseas education departments

International organisations

• The European Commission’s Eurydice network provides information about, and analysis of, European education systems and policies
• The US National Center on Education and the Economy’s (NCEE) Center on International Education Benchmarking provides information on the world’s top‑performing education systems
• OECD—Education; and the OECD’s Education GPS
• United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO)—Education.

 Overseas education departments

• Canada—the Council of Ministers of Education, Canada is an intergovernmental body of the Canadian provincial ministers of education. It provides links to the education ministries of each Canadian province. Canada has no federal education department.
• New Zealand—Ministry of Education
• United Kingdom (UK). Note: responsibility for education is devolved:
  • England—Department for Education (UK)
  • Northern Ireland—Department of Education
  • Scotland—Education Scotland
  • Wales—Education and Skills
  • Education and training statistics for the whole of the UK.
• United States:
  • federal Department of Education—includes links to state education departments
  • Education Commission of the States provides information about federal and state education policies, legislation, research and statistics.

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