Ambitious 2025 goals for Australian kids

Equity and excellence across the board

The Government has committed to ambitious goals for Australian children, aimed at ensuring every Australian child receives an excellent education. These are:

Australia to be placed in the top five countries internationally in reading, mathematics and science by 2025; and
Australia to be considered a high quality and high equity schooling system by international standards by 2025.

While Australian students perform well on average, we are slipping down the international rankings and too many of our disadvantaged students are being left behind.

Improving the quality of Australian schooling is vital for our country's future prosperity, productivity and wellbeing, and working towards these goals for 2025 will help ensure we can seize the opportunities on offer in the Asian century.

The National Plan for School Improvement and more equitable funding arrangements will be essential to ensuring all Australian kids have the opportunity to succeed.

Progress in International Reading Literacy Study (PIRLS) 2011 Year 4 reading score

National Education Reform Agreement Goals

As well as asking the States and Territories to agree to two new and ambitious national targets, the National Education Reform Agreement also includes the national targets previously agreed by the Commonwealth and the States under the National Education Agreement:

lift the Year 12 (or equivalent) or Cert II attainment rate to 90 per cent by 2015;
lift the Year 12 (or equivalent) or Cert III attainment rate to 90 per cent by 2020;
at least halve the gap for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students in Year 12 or equivalent attainment rates by 2020; and
halve the gap for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students in reading, writing and numeracy by 2018.