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Only half of Victorian teenagers attending government high schools say they have a sense of belonging, as a group of educators pushes to turn the issue around and lift student engagement.
The state government’s Attitudes to School Survey, released last month, shows 50.2 per cent of students in years 7 to 9 have a sense of belonging in their school, and only 52.8 per cent say their teachers make them interested in learning.
The responses – from more than 380,000 students across the public school system – show a sharp fall in engagement in secondary school, compared to the 77 per cent of students in years 4 to 6 who say they feel they belong at school and the 88.9 per cent who say their teachers keep them interested in learning.
The figures are up slightly on the year prior, but the not-for-profit research group the Institute for Educational Reform says the low rates of engagement in the older cohort is one of the biggest problems the education system faces.
“We’re saying there are serious issues that need to be addressed rather than covered over,” said David Loader, the institute’s chair and a former school principal of 32 years.
According to the group’s research, among the areas for reform are measuring students on personal growth rather than on a pass-fail term, and updating the curriculum to embrace AI and more discussion of current affairs.
‘I think the main problem with school is how outdated and rigid it is.’
Year 9 student Brodie Ibrahim
Teachers report wanting to see explicit instruction used as a foundation but not a replacement for critical thinking, and greater separation of students of higher and lower abilities into classes that better cater for them.
“In a class, you will have students who are three grades ahead, they are bored. And the students who are three grades behind, well, they’ve given up,” Loader said.
“So how is that a case for equal opportunity for every student? We are leaving students behind because we’re not actually addressing where they are.”
Brodie Ibrahim, a year 9 student at a secondary school in Melbourne’s west, said he was rarely engaged at school and often faced resistance in class when he tried to challenge himself.
“I think the main problem with school is how outdated and rigid it is,” he said.
Last year, his teachers asked him to write a Gothic short story. Brodie said that when he put in several overlapping themes, they asked him to remove them and focus on only one.
“I ended up with a very mediocre story that got me a below standard mark because I wasn’t able to do what I wanted to do,” Brodie said.
Though he enjoys debating, Brodie said he had no opportunity to pursue that as an extracurricular activity.
‘In a class, you will have students who are three grades ahead, they are bored. And the students who are three grades behind, well, they’ve given up.’
David Loader, Institute for Educational Reform
His mother, Sophie Minas, said Brodie sometimes disrupted classes because he wasn’t engaged and had too much spare time. “Anything he wants to learn, he will just learn it online, he’s not going to join a club or anything like that. He does his own research online,” she said.
Amy Cooper, a psychologist who supports people experiencing disengagement from education, said there were many reasons why the shift from primary to high school was challenging for students.
“That’s when kids are becoming really aware of social norms – who has what and how people appear,” Cooper said, adding that gaining some independence, puberty and stress all played a role.
She said early indication of students’ learning needs was key.
“We have to meet those students where they’re at. And I think that’s where we’re falling down. If you have a year 7 student who is saying, ‘I’m so bored, when can I leave?’, and is not that interested or invested in learning, then we want to find out what would be interesting,” she said.
“That kid is probably going to have a job one day – what job would you like? How do we tie that thing that they’re interested in to the learning they have to get through?”
A Department of Education spokesperson said there was a 3.1 per cent improvement in students’ sense of connection to school from 2024 and 2025.
“We also saw continued improvement in student perceptions of school and their own wellbeing, building on the improvements seen in 2024,” the spokesperson said.
The spokesperson said cost-of-living relief, mental health and disability inclusion, and the government’s navigator program – which re-engages students in education – had helped lift the figures.
“The issue of student disengagement in years 7 to 9 is a nationwide and international issue. We continue to examine new evidence and emerging practices to better engage students,” the spokesperson said.
Cooper warned that all it could take was for one person telling a young person they weren’t good at something for them to disengage.
“The thing that can turn it around is one pro-social adult that really believes in you,” she said.
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Jackson Graham is an education reporter at The Age. He was previously an explainer reporter.Connect via email.From our partners
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