Australian families continue to pay the price for Labor’s failure to tackle spiralling classroom behaviour and escalating violence.
Latest data released by the Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority (ACARA) shows school attendance rates remain alarmingly low, with only 59.8 per cent of students attending school more than 90 per cent of the time in 2024.
It represents a sharp decline from pre-COVID levels of 73.1 per cent in 2019 and underscores the devastating impact of Labor’s inaction on getting students back on track.
The data also shows the proportion of 17 – 24-year-olds fully engaged in education, training, or work has dipped to 73.1 per cent, down from 75.4 per cent just last year.
The results follow recent reports that school assaults have surged by 50 per cent in just two years with almost 90 students suspended each day across Victoria alone, due to violent and unruly behaviour.
Australia now ranks among the worst in the OECD for classroom behaviour, a damning indictment of Labor’s inaction at both state and federal levels.
Despite repeated warnings, the Albanese government and Education Minister Jason Clare have failed to implement meaningful reforms to lift attendance, tackle student disengagement, and restore confidence in our schools.
Meanwhile, teachers are struggling under the weight of rising classroom disruption and escalating violence, with no answers from Labor.
While the government has adopted the Coalition’s call for explicit instruction and other evidence-based teaching methods, Jason Clare has failed to detail how teachers will be sufficiently supported in the classroom, ignoring critical Coalition recommendations including for a national behaviour curriculum.
It leaves our educators and students in crisis.
Only the Coalition has a plan to back teachers and put behaviour on the agenda to combat classroom disruption and improve the environments in which students learn.