Improving attendance: Increasing students’ academic and wellbeing outcomes - Lessons from the taxi and energy sectors

Traditional schooling models are increasingly failing to meet the diverse academic and wellbeing needs of students. As a result, many students are experiencing mental health issues and lack a feeling of safety at school, leading to a significant decline in attendance rates.

In addition, the parents and caregivers of these students no longer trust the traditional model to provide a quality education. This undermines the vision and goals of Australian education and has a significant impact on individuals and society.

Drawing on lessons from the taxi and energy sectors, this article looks at where traditional schooling is falling short and explores innovative approaches to improve student attendance and outcomes. 

Key indicators for schooling

Strong indicators of traditional schooling’s declining success are the attendance rates of Australian students and the number of children leaving traditional schools to enrol in alternative education settings or leaving schools and not enrolling in any other education setting or employment. This is a vital indicator, as data shows there is a high correlation between academic achievement and school attendance.

Other indicators include the growth of alternative schools and the significant increase in homeschooling. It’s estimated there are more than 50,000 school-age students who are not enrolled in any educational setting or employment, according to the University of Melbourne’s ‘Those who disappear’, by Watterson, J. and O’Connor. According to the University of Southern Queensland (USQ), in 2024, school attendance rates (the number of days students attend) for Years 1 to 10 was 88.3 per cent. This is down slightly from 88.6 per cent in 2023. Student attendance levels (the percentage of students who go for more than 90 per cent of the time) was 59.8 per cent in 2024, down from 61.6 per cent in 2023. In 2019, the national attendance rate was 91.4 per cent and the attendance levels was 73.1 per cent.

One form of non-attendance is school refusal, which can be defined as a type of school attendance problem based on a student’s emotional distress when attending school, according to ‘Differentiation between School Attendance Problems’, Burch, Heyne (2019). COVID-19 accelerated the number of students experiencing school refusal. School refusal differs from school truancy, when a student is absent from school without a valid reason or permission. It’s a deliberative, unauthorised absence. Students experiencing school refusal want to attend school but are unable to due to emotional distress.

A recent Australian senate inquiry stated that school refusal is complex and multifactorial. It’s associated with a range of risk factors, including individual traits, socio-economic conditions, family structure, the school environment and society more broadly. Examples of factors leading to school refusal include, but are not limited to, breakdown of families, mental health issues, behavioural issues, gender identification, disabilities, neurodiversity, and social problems with peers.

The rigid, centralised structure of traditional schooling and its approach to learning and teaching is failing to meet the diverse and evolving needs of many students, much like outdated business models in other industries. Schools must embrace greater flexibility and adaptability to prevent further drift of student enrolments and decline.

The lack of a coordinated cross-government response to students experiencing mental health issues is also reported as a failure of the traditional school model. In addition, there is no nationally consistent process to track school-age students when they transfer from one school to another or enter another educational setting, for example, TAFE or employment.

To compensate for traditional schooling’s approach to learning and teaching and student wellbeing, there is an increase of students enrolling in alternative education options. Some of these options lack a contemporary accountability and regulatory framework to ensure enrolled students are learning.

Lessons from the taxi and energy industries

Lessons from the taxi industry's struggle against ridesharing services and the energy sector’s adaptation to renewable power highlight the necessity for structural reform.

The collapse of traditional taxi services in many cities serves as a cautionary tale for the education sector. The rise of Uber and other ridesharing platforms exposed taxi companies' inefficiency and regulatory rigidity.

Consumers sought more flexible, digital services that are tailored to individual needs. Ridesharing services introduced more flexible, technologically advanced and personalised transportation options. Initially, there was little to no legislation or regulatory oversight governing these services, necessitating the development of policies and regulations in response to their rapid expansion.

Similarly, mainstream schools operate under restrictive, bureaucratic frameworks that limit their ability to innovate. Just as taxi regulations had to be rewritten to accommodate new business models, education policies must be adapted to allow schools greater autonomy in curriculum design, teaching methods, and student assessment. The legislation that governs alternative education settings also needs to be strengthened.

The electricity industry faces a parallel challenge. The rise of renewable energy sources, particularly solar power, has necessitated the need for traditional grids to integrate these innovations efficiently. Homeowners generating solar power often struggle to feed their excess electricity back into outdated grid systems.

Similarly, traditional schooling infrastructures are ill-equipped to integrate innovative educational models, including hybrid learning, Artificial Intelligence (AI)-driven personalised instruction, and competency-based progression. Without significant investment in new frameworks and policies, mainstream education will continue to trail emerging alternatives.

Recommendations

Recommendation five of The Australian Senate Inquiry: The national trend of school refusal and related matters (2023), reflects the above lessons:

Recommendation five - The committee recommends that state and territory education authorities and the non‑government school sector investigate ways to increase the flexibility of education delivery, including by:

• Identifying ways to enhance flexibility in mainstream school settings for children going through school refusal
• Facilitating easier access to distance education and homeschooling for students experiencing school refusal
• Facilitating the provision of more alternative and specialist school settings that cater for students experiencing school refusal.

We have set out seven recommendations below for consideration by policymakers in relation to improving attendance. These actions aim to help meet the goals of the Alice Springs (Mparntwe) Education Declaration and meet recommendation five of the senate inquiry.

Recommendations for policymakers are:              

Recommendation	Comment
1. Review and update regulatory framework - Traditional schooling	Review and revise existing regulatory frameworks to provide greater flexibility for traditional schools in adapting to student needs and evolving education challenges. Strengthen frameworks governing alternative education settings.
2. Provide greater autonomy to schools	Provide the ability for schools to act in the best interest of the child by enhancing Principals and community autonomy while promoting a collaborative culture where ideas and learnings are shared.
3. Increase wellbeing services	Engage with health and social services resources to assist in a student’s (and family’s) well-being.
4. Personalise education programs	Promote individualised goal setting, program development and choice of assessment - embrace technology to promote personalised education programs.
5. Facilitate alternative settings for students experiencing school refusal	Reduce barriers for the establishment of alternative settings.
6. Improve accountabilities - Alternative education setting	Implement a rigorous accountabilities framework for alternative education settings to strengthen the safeguarding of children, ensuring both academic progress and wellbeing are effectively monitored and supported.
7. Adopt nationally consistent tracking of student’s attendance in educational settings	Develop a national approach to monitoring student attendance and movement between schools/educational settings.

The views and opinions expressed in this publication are of the BDO Centre for Education, and do not necessarily reflect the official position of BDO. Contact us to learn more. 

About the BDO Centre for Education

The BDO Centre for Education (the Centre) is dedicated to advancing education in Australia by fostering collaboration among experts, stakeholders, and sectors within the field. The Centre’s mission is to promote excellence and equity, enabling all Australians to become confident and creative individuals, successful learners, and active and informed community members. Through critical analysis, evidence-based solutions, and informed advocacy, we strive to address the challenges facing education in the 2020s as outlined in the Alice Springs (Mparntwe) Education Declaration (2019). Our commitment to knowledge dissemination, outreach and inclusivity drives us to shape public opinion and advocate for evidence-based education policies, creating a stronger, more inclusive educational landscape for future generations.

The committee comprises of ten members who have served in various roles as leaders, stewards, managers, or advisers a diverse range of settings across the education sector over many decades. These individuals remain active in the education sector.