RIVERLAND children are among those across the state benefitting from recent investments aimed to improve the high quality of early childhood education and care services.
State Government statistics released last week showed that South Australia has the second highest proportion of early childhood education and care service exceeding the National Quality Standard (NQS) in the country – with 36 per cent of SA services receiving a rating above the Australian average of 22 per cent.
However, the number of services rated as ‘Working Towards’ significantly decreased from 56 per cent to 20 per cent during the last year.
An additional $7m has been invested into the Education Standards Board (ESB) to increase and improve regulatory services, which has seen a 63 per cent increase on the previous year in the number of service visits. 
The additional investment has allowed the ESB to run more workshops to help services achieve top-quality ratings, and when problems occur, to carry out audits and take immediate disciplinary action if required.
Currently, South Australia is the only state or territory with an independent regulatory authority.
The State Government is also investing in the quality of long day care services through a $1.9bn investment in three-year-old preschool reforms including hiring staff for long day care centres, professional development and coaching for services rated as ‘working towards the NQS’
The latest data, as part of the Productivity Commission’s annual Report on Government Services, showed South Australia has recorded the second-highest attendance rate for full-time secondary students in the nation.
In 2024 the attendance rate for students in years 7-10 at Government schools was 84.3 per cent, above the national average of 83.4 per cent.
SA public schools showed attendance improvement for the third year in a row, following the establishment of a specialist team to address the challenges of student absences.
Minister for Education, Training and Skills Blair Boyer said “we know the early years are incredibly important for children’s brain development and social and emotional intelligence, and to see our childcare services rated so highly, is a testament to the incredible focus our staff have on supporting our youngest South Australians”.
“We know that attending school every day helps students to stay on track and progress academically, take part in social activities, learn positive life skills and have access to support and services when needed,” Mr Boyer said.
“Data for our schools has been in line with rates for government schools nationally, but I am pleased to see that we’re starting to see improvements.
Additional Report on Government Services (RoGS) School Education data showed: 

• 62.1 per cent of all South Australian students (FTE enrolments) were