The latest Closing the Gap data contains some good news – there is a marked increase in early childhood enrolments for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children. The report shows how in the year before full-time schooling, there has been a 25% increase in enrolments over the past seven years.
In 2016, 76.7% of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students were enrolled in a preschool program. In 2023, it was 101.8% (this figure is more than 100% due to different sources of data and will be updated once we have 2021 Census population figures).
This shows we are both improving on track to meet the target of 95% of students enrolled in early education before they start school by 2025.