Over the past 30 years, despite some public perceptions to the contrary, Indigenous Australians have made a great deal of progress in education and training.

• Participation in early childhood and primary schooling has improved dramatically.
  
• Retention rates from Year 7/8 to Year 12 have shifted from under 10 percent in 1970 to nearly 40 percent in 2003.
  
• The very first Aboriginal tertiary students of Australian universities began graduating in the early 1960s. In 2003 there were just on 9,000 Indigenous students enrolled in university courses.
  
• The participation rates of Indigenous 15–24 year olds in vocational education and training have actually reached levels about the same as those for other Australians.