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Victorian children fare well in new report

News bulletin: 24 August 2009

a group of school children waving

A new report reveals that Victoria’s children, aged 0-17 years, are progressing well against a range of wellbeing indicators.

The State of Victoria’s Children 2008, released by Minister for Children and Early Childhood Development Maxine Morand on 13 August 2009, brings together the latest information on how young Victorians are faring in the areas of health and wellbeing, learning, development and safety.

The report shows a rise in immunisation rates in children; in 2006-07, 93.6 per cent of children aged 24-27 months were immunised, up from 85.7 per cent in 2000-2001.

In education, students in Victoria are among the highest achievers.

In 2008, 96.5 per cent of Year 3 students met or exceeded the national minimum standards in numeracy, compared to 95 per cent nationally. 95.2 per cent of Victorian Year 3 students met or exceeded the national minimum standards in reading, compared to 92.1 per cent nationally.

At the other end of the spectrum, the report found that 81.8 per cent of Year 10 -12 Victorian students were staying on at school, considerably higher than the national average of 75.6 per cent.

Another promising finding was the attitude students held towards Victorian school education: approximately 74 per cent of Victorian children surveyed in the Healthy Neighbourhoods School Survey believed they could be involved in decisions about activities and rules in the classroom.

A decline in rates of smoking, births to young mothers, child injury and poisoning deaths was also found.

‘This annual report shows our investment, particularly in the areas of early childhood services, literacy and numeracy intervention and education and training, is making a real difference,’ Ms Morand said.

Despite these findings, Ms Morand said that further work was needed to improve outcomes for Aboriginal children and address mental health and alcohol consumption in young people.

New and existing initiatives such as Dardee Boorai, ‘Go for your life’ and a four-year drug education plan, are examples of strategies that the Department is using to tackle these issues.

More information

The The State of Victoria’s Children 2008 report was produced in collaboration with the Department of Human Services, the Department of Planning and Community Development, the Department of Transport and the Department of Justice.