National preschool enrolment for First Nations children in year before school touches new record

New data released by the Productivity Commission confirms ongoing positive momentum in  Socioeconomic Outcome Area 3  of the 2023 Commonwealth Closing the Gap Implementation Plan– First Nations children are engaged in high quality, culturally appropriate early childhood education in their early years.

Included in the “Closing the Gap” information repository the new data shows that Target 3 – to  increase the proportion of First Nations children enrolled in year before school early childhood education to 95 per cent – has been achieved for the second consecutive year on a national basis. 

In 2022, 99.2 per cent of First Nations children were enrolled in year before school early childhood education programs, up from 96.7 per cent in 2021 and substantially higher than the 76.7 per cent recorded in the baseline year of 2016.

Across the states and territories of Australia there was a wide variance in performance with Victoria having the highest proportion of First Nations children enrolled in preschool programs (125.8 per cent) and the Northern Territory having the lowest (68.70 per cent)

That being said improvement was seen year on year in all jurisdictions with the exception of the ACT and Northern Territory, both of which record reductions in preschool attendances. The reason for the falls this year are unclear and were not addressed in the Closing the Gap data.

A second data series focussing on the number of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander focused integrated early years services showed a notable pick up in 2022 with 175 such services operating nationally. 

Around 3 in 5 were Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander community-controlled services (108 services) with the remainder government and/or non-Indigenous controlled services (67 services). 

Across jurisdictions, those with the majority of services that were Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander community controlled were NSW (45 out of 47), Victoria (11 out of 11), Queensland (26 out of 40) and WA (7 out of 10).

Nationally, the number of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander community-controlled early years services has increased each year since the baseline year of 2016, when there were 86 services.

To review the latest Closing the Gap data visit this website.