In April 1999, Australian State, Territory and Commonwealth Ministers of Education met at the Ministerial Council on Education, Employment, Training and Youth Affairs (MCEETYA) in Adelaide. At that meeting, ministers endorsed a new set of national goals for schooling in the 21st century. This was released as The Adelaide Declaration (1999) on National Goals for Schooling in the 21st century.

The Declaration stated that high quality schooling was essential to Australia's future. Each citizen should have the necessary knowledge, understanding, skills and values for a productive and rewarding life in an educated, just and open society.

The National Goals for Schooling is intended to guide schools and education authorities in securing these outcomes for students. It acknowledged the capacity of all young people to learn, and the role of schooling in developing that capacity. It also acknowledged the role of parents, as the first educators, and the central role of teachers.

The Declaration said, in part: “The common and agreed goals for schooling establish a foundation for action among State and Territory governments with their constitutional responsibility for schooling, the Commonwealth, non-government school authorities and all those who seek the best possible educational outcomes for young Australians, to improve the quality of schooling nationally.

These national goals provide a basis for investment in schooling to enable all young people to engage effectively with an increasingly complex world. This world will be characterised by advances in information and communication technologies, population diversity arising from international mobility and migration, and complex environmental and social challenges.

“...achievement of the National Goals for Schooling will assist young people to contribute to Australia's social, cultural and economic development in local and global contexts. Their achievement will also assist young people to develop a disposition towards learning throughout their lives so that they can exercise their rights and responsibilities as citizens of Australia.”

See the full report at: www.mceetya.edu.au/mceetya/nationalgoals

MCEETYA publishes a National Report on Schooling in Australia annually. The report covers annual highlights and funding and measures the performance in Australian schools in a wide range of areas including literacy and numeracy (Years 3, 5 and 7 benchmarks), vocational education, science education, information and communication technologies education, indigenous education, vocational education and civics and citizenship education.

See past reports at: http://www.mceetya.edu.au/mceetya/anr/