The Education State

Education is the key to empowering young people to reach their potential.

Our vision

Victoria’s vision for the Education State is to deliver excellence in every classroom, in every corner of the state.

Our vision is shared, developed with input from Victorian students, families, teachers and school leaders.

Five key priorities will guide our work over the coming years:

Excellence in teaching and learning: Informed by the latest evidence, ensuring our dedicated teachers have the most effective teaching tools and support.
Every student matters: We will ensure safe and welcoming environments – so teachers can do their best work, students can do their best learning, and every school offers a safe and respectful environment.
Lifting secondary school student engagement and achievement: Strengthen engagement in secondary school, and continue to support every student to embark on a positive post-school pathway.
Expand, support and recognise our school workforce: Continue to attract, retain and support a highly-skilled, diverse school workforce, including by reducing the administrative burden, delivering professional learning and supporting teaching wellbeing.
Schools at the centre of communities: Build welcoming, world-class and modern schools, which meet the needs of local communities so every child can have access to a great local school.

As we strive towards excellence in every Victorian government school, we will continue seeking opportunities to partner with the non-government school sector. We will work together to ensure all Victorian students are supported to thrive and learn at school.

Our achievements

The Victorian Government’s commitment to making Victoria the Education State means targeted investment in:

senior secondary pathways
literacy and numeracy supports
student attendance initiatives
student mental health reform and wellbeing support in schools
disability inclusion reform
new local schools for Victorian families.

Victoria is a top performer nationally in reading and writing. In particular, the performance of our students in literacy has consistently improved since 2015. Victorian primary school students now have some of the top results in reading and writing across Australia.

Education is the great leveler. For students who face inequity or hardship, it has the power to transform life outcomes. Victoria is one of the few states making progress in meeting Closing the Gap targets in education, with the number of First Nations students completing Year 12 increasing from 50% in 2001 to 73% in 2021.

Victorian students are engaged in education and work at the highest rates in the country. In 2023, more than 96% of students who started Year 12 completed the VCE, including more than 13% who did the new Vocational Major. Every year since 2020, more than 80% of students have completed Year 12.

We have grown the number of school teachers in Victoria by 8,000 between 2020 and 2023. We gave them more time to plan, assess student needs and deliver great lessons.

We have the largest school building program in the country with almost 50% of new government schools built in Australia in Victoria.

Learn how we have worked in partnership with schools and communities through these case studies.