School engagement

Age differences

The proportion of students reporting they like school dipped at ages 14, 15, and 16, with 17 year old students being most likely to report that they liked school.

This suggests that some students who dislike school have disengaged from education by year 13.

Proportion of secondary students who like school “a lot” or “a bit”, by age and sex, 2001
  Proportion of students who like school
%
  (95% CI)
Age (years) Males Females
13 and under 43.6 49.7
  (37.5, 49.7) (43.8, 55.6)
14 40.4 42.3
  (35.3, 45.6) (36.6, 48.1)
15 37.8 41.0
  (31.4, 44.1) (35.9, 46.2)
16 36.9 43.9
  (31.6, 42.2) (36.4, 51.4)
17 and over 44.3 50.1
  (36.5, 52.1) (42.3, 57.8)
All 40.4 44.9
  (36.4, 44.4) (41.1, 48.7)

Source: Youth2000 Survey.

Note: “95%CI” (95 percent confidence interval) signifies that there is a 95 percent chance that the true value falls within this range. If the respective confidence intervals (in brackets) do not overlap, the difference between rates is likely to be statistically significant.