Trends in indigenous educational participation and attainment, 1986-96

This paper provides a summary and overview of indigenous people within the Australian education system. A cohort analysis of changes in educational pa rticipation and the level and type of educational qualification over the la st three censuses for the indigenous and non-indigenous populations is pres ented. The main finding is that although there have been some absolute impr ovements in indigenous educational outcomes over the period 1986 to 1996, r elative to the non-indigenous there have been little if any real gains. The lack of improvement relative to the non-indigenous population occurs not o nly in the proportion of the population with post-secondary qualifications, but also in the proportion of indigenous teenagers staying at school. By a ny measure, the indigenous population remains severely disadvantaged. Anoth er finding is that, for younger age groups, the nonindigenous population ha s a higher participation rate in post-secondary education than the indigeno us population. This situation is reversed for older age groups.