This report provides results from the National Assessment Program – Civics and Citizenship (NAP–CC) sample assessments undertaken in 2024. NAP–CC is taken by a representative sample of Year 6 and Year 10 students across Australia. The assessments test students’ civics and citizenship knowledge and understanding addressing areas such as Australia’s civic institutions, its system of government, the rights and obligations of Australian citizens, and the tenets of democracy that underpin Australia’s multicultural society. 

According to this report, Australian students continue to value the importance of learning about our country’s history and civic institutions. Despite this, the report shows that students’ knowledge and understanding of Australia’s democracy, our political system and civic processes has fallen.

The report includes further information on performance results for sub-groups of students based on their background and demographics, and shows that disparities for some of these groups persist. The report also includes findings from a Year 6 and Year 10 student questionnaire about their attitudes and engagement with civics and citizenship. 

Key findings

• Year 6 and 10 students have a high degree of trust in civic institutions, but considerably less trust in the media or social media.
• A large proportion of students at both year levels used the internet, including social media, to get news about current events. There was a notable drop in the proportion of students accessing news via traditional media.
• At the national level, results have fallen since the last assessment undertaken in 2019 and to the lowest levels since the assessment began in 2004.
• This declining trend in student performance has also been observed in other recent international civic and citizenship assessments.
• Year 6 female students significantly outperformed male students as in previous assessments, but there was no significant gender difference at Year 10, marking a change from the past trends where female students performed better.
• The gap between Indigenous and non-Indigenous students attaining the proficient standard at both Year 6 and Year 10 remained significant in 2024.
• Like with other national assessments, students from schools in major cities generally outperformed those in regional and remote schools.
• Achievement in civics and citizenship gradually increased with increasing levels of parental occupation and parental education, resulting in large, significant differences between the highest and the lowest occupational and educational groups.