More indigenous students are staying on until Year 12 than ever before, new figures show.
The Australian Bureau of Statistics' annual report card on schools, released on Friday, shows the retention rate of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students rose from 59.8 per cent in 2016 to 62.4 per cent in 2017.
"These new figures show us that more students than ever, who identify as Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander, are staying at school until Grade 12," ABS spokesman Stephen Collett said.
The retention rate was 47.2 per cent a decade ago.
The non-indigenous retention rate for 2017 was 86 per cent, up from 85.5 per cent in 2016.
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The share of students enrolled in government schools has also risen from 65.4 per cent in 2016 to 65.6 per cent in 2017.
It reverses the shift towards non-government schooling seen over the past two decades, Mr Collett said.
The data showed there were 9444 schools in Australia, down from 9562 a decade ago, with 3.85 million students enrolled across the country.
The proportion of students in independent schools was 14.5 per cent, with 19.9 per cent in Catholic schools.
Meanwhile, Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull said in his first major speech for the year, delivered in Toowoomba on Thursday, 2018 would be a year of school funding reform.
"We have delivered the biggest reform to school funding in our nation's history including an extra $23.5 billion to schools nationally," Mr Turnbull said.
"And now (consultant) David Gonski's second review will make sure the extra money improves results and gives our kids the world-class education that they need."
