2006-07 Victorian State Budget : New Academic Number to Help Improve Outcomes For All Students
Fact Sheet
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A new $5.1 million initiative will see every Victorian student up to the age of 24 issued with an individual Academic Number.
The initiative will ensure that basic enrolment details for all Victorian students are brought together in a streamlined system, ensuring critical information is not lost when students transfer from school to school or from school to TAFE or other training organisations.
The Bracks Government has invested almost $1.5 billion on literacy and numeracy programs since 1999 and a further $0.5 billion on other programs expected to have a positive impact on numeracy and literacy outcomes.
The Academic Number will help to ensure this investment in education is making a difference for all students by providing comprehensive information on the education and training system, leading to improved educational programs that target areas of need.
The Academic Number will ensure that students’ enrolment information travels with them through the system and their school life.
Bringing together basic information in a central registry will create a complete picture of the education and training system, enabling programs to be better targeted to areas of need, leading to improved outcomes.
A number will be assigned at a student’s first registration in a Victorian school, TAFE, or other registered training institution (excluding universities).
The number will be stored at a central registry, which will only contain basic identity information about a student, including name, date of birth, prior names, preferred name, and enrolment history.
The Registry will not contain contact information, demographic information, achievements, health and pastoral information. That will continue to be stored as it is now, at school level. Access to information in the register will be strictly controlled and there will be strict protocols developed around access to and use of the data.
This information is already collected, to varying degrees, at individual schools and can already be accessed by a parent or guardian upon application, which will continue.