Year 12s completing SACE certificate education in South Australia hit record levels in 2017; more from country areas

Year 12 graduates receive the South Australian Certificate of Education.

A record 15,175 or 97.3% of South Australian Year 12 students completed their South Australian Certificate of Education (SACE) in 2017. More students – 4,050 – in country South Australia completed their SACE in 2017.

A total of 1,196 merit certificates were awarded to 920 students, including 107 students from country South Australia. A record 235 students completed a modified SACE, offered to students with intellectual disabilities. 

An annual ceremony at Government House honoureds subject merits achieved in the SACE. The governor awards were:

• Commendation for outstanding overall achievement in the SACE.
• Aboriginal Student SACE Award for the Aboriginal student with the highest overall achievement in the SACE.
• Excellence in Modified SACE Award for the student with an identified intellectual disability who demonstrates outstanding achievement exclusively through SACE modified subjects.
• The Tennyson Medal is presented to the student who achieved the highest grade in English Studies in 2016.

A $10 million move to online assessments is planned for SACE, along with initiatives to bring schools and industry closer together by making learning highly relevant to the workplace and encourage students to stay at school to complete the SACE.

But a 2017 research analysis report into SACE and vocational education showed that little is known about the outcomes from educational results of 27% of government school students.

Gaps in the data mean that it is unknown how many of this group had transitioned into work or eventually progressed to further study or training beyond school.

The analysis, from data sharing by the education department, SACE Board and department for industry and skills, tracked individual student progress from Year 8 enrolment in 2012 to the end of 2016.

The government wouldw use the data to establish research partnerships to better understand the ways students advance into jobs, training and tertiary study, or not. Universities and other research organisations will be invited to work with the Education Department to fully understand the forces that influence students, the learning and earning choices they make, and the role that schools play in student choices.