Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children are engaged in high quality, culturally appropriate early childhood education in their early years.

By 2025, increase the proportion of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children enrolled in Year Before Full‑time Schooling (YBFS) early childhood education to 95%.

Rate of attendance in early childhood education in the year before full‑time schooling.

The proportion of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children in the state‑specific YBFS age cohort enrolled in a preschool program who attended preschool for 15 hours or more in the reference week, defined as:

Numerator – number of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children in the state‑specific YBFS age cohort enrolled in a preschool program who attended preschool for 15 hours or more in the reference week

Denominator – number of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children in the state-specific YBFS age cohort enrolled in a preschool program

and is presented as a percentage.

National Agreement on Closing the Gap July 2020

13 November 2024

Contextual information

A high or increasing proportion of children who attended preschool for 15 hours or more is desirable.

Name: Preschool Education, Australia

Frequency: Annual

Documentation (links): https://www.abs.gov.au/statistics/people/education/preschool-education-australia

Provider name: Australian Bureau of Statistics

Provider area: Preschool Education

2016

2023

State and territory and Australia, by Indigenous status, by hours attended (15 or more hours, 10‑14 hours, 1 to less than 10 hours, did not attend).

Numerator divided by Denominator multiplied by 100

Counting rules

Australian totals include all states and territories (including Other Territories).

Includes (numerator and denominator)

• Children in the state-specific YBFS age cohort who are enrolled in a preschool program. The state-specific YBFS age cohort is an estimate of a single year cohort for the population that will transition to full‑time schooling in the following year. The state‑specific YBFS definition uses the preschool and school age entry provisions of the state or territory in which the child usually resides. See Preschool Education, Australia methodology (http://www.abs.gov.au/methodologies/preschool-education-australia-methodology/)

Excludes (numerator and denominator)

• Children whose Indigenous status is not stated.

Includes (numerator):

• Children who attended a preschool program for at least 15 hours during the reference week.

Excludes (numerator):

• Children who were absent due to illness or extended holiday leave.
• Children who attended preschool in the reference week, but the number of hours were not stated.

Extraction

ABS TableBuilder – Preschool Education data series:

• Children enrolled in a preschool program, 2017–2023
• Children enrolled in a preschool program, 2016 (new linking method)

Summation Options:

• State-specific YBFS estimate

Child Information:

• Indigenous status: [Aboriginal, Torres Strait, both Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander origin], Neither Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander origin
• Geography: State/Territory of child

Attendance in reference week:

• (One hour or more attendance) Summation Options: Children enrolled in a preschool program: Hours attended per week – continuous (range)
• (Did not attend) Child information: Attended a preschool program: Did not attend in reference week.

Data values have been randomly adjusted to avoid the release of confidential data. Discrepancies may occur between sums of the component items and totals.

Enrolment and attendance data are collected during a reference week in late July/early August each year, although there are some variations to the reference period across jurisdictions. In 2023, this was 31 July to 6 August. Care should be taken when interpreting data as attendance may be impacted by illness, Sorry Business, cultural activities, holiday leave or ongoing impacts of COVID-19 in some states and territories.

Methods for the identification of Indigenous status vary by jurisdiction. Children are included in the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander counts if they are identified by a parent or guardian as being of Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander origin. For data supplied via the Australian Government's child care subsidy system (CCSS), children of families who choose not to identify as Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander are classified as ‘non-Indigenous’ rather than ‘unknown/not stated’.

For children enrolled in Centre Based Care (data supplied via the CCSS), hours enrolled is used as a proxy for attended hours.

Tasmania and the Australian Capital Territory have relatively small Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander populations compared to the other states and territories which means year-to-year variability in single year of age populations may be more pronounced. This may result in year-to-year variability of the rate of preschool enrolment in these jurisdictions and should be used with caution. Please see the How to interpret the data page for more information.

COVID-19 restrictions in 2020 and 2021 severely affected preschool program delivery in selected states. Attendance data is not available for Victoria in 2020 and 2021 and not available for New South Wales in 2021.

In 2023, South Australia introduced a mid-year intake to their preschool policy, which will be factored into future reporting as data is available.

Future reporting will seek to include the following additional disaggregations:

• remoteness areas
• socio‑economic status of the locality
• gender.