Growing numbers of students were not planning on continuing secondary school, The Canberra Times reported on this day in 1995, as more young Australians sought alternatives to finishing their secondary education.
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According to the Australian Bureau of Statistics, over a quarter of students on schedule to graduate in 1994 quit school or stalled somewhere along the way.
Figures also showed that government schools had been closing and attracting fewer students, whereas non-government schools had reported higher enrollment numbers, and more were in the process of being built.
The drop-out rate of students varied between each state, as both NSW and Western Australia saw increases in their schools' retention rates.
The rest of the states and territories recorded falls, including the ACT, which maintained the highest retention rate in the country despite falling numbers.
The drop in retention rates was attributed to more students choosing TAFE as an entry into the workplace, less students needing to repeat their final years of school, and part-time students may have distorted the numbers and not been included in the figures.
