One in four young Australians don't finish high school: report

A landmark Australian study has revealed that one in four of the nation's students do not earn a high school certificate or vocational equivalent.

The Mitchell Institute for Health and Education Policy, a Melbourne-based research group, made the claim in an unflattering review of Australia's school system on Monday.

The institute's Educational Opportunity in Australia 2015 report discovered an incredible 81,199 Australian students, or 26 percent, were not secondary-school graduates, either due to leaving or failing school.

In Victoria, 23 percent of 19-year-old's in the state did not have a Victorian Certificate of Education (VCE) or equivalent certificate.

While across the border, the rate was slightly higher for New South Wales (NSW) students at 27 percent.

Mitchell Institute director Dr Sara Glover said the results were a "real cause for alarm", and Australia could not "afford" to stand idly by while Australia's youth remained undereducated.

"This is the future workforce of Australia. If we are not equipping them well enough for that, this is a quarter of young talent wasted," Glover told Fairfax Media on Monday.

Other concerning statistics the report unearthed were that 30 percent of Australia's Year 7 students were below international benchmarks in reading, 40 percent of "poorest" students gave up on school and only 44 percent of the country's indigenous students completed Year 12.

"We haven't succeeded yet in developing an egalitarian system," Professor Stephen Lamb, lead author of the report, told Fairfax Media on Monday.

"High levels of segregation of students in Australia, due in large part to residential segregation and the sector organisation of schools, tend to reinforce patterns of inequality and strengthen differences in school performance.

"We have a large proportion of kids who keep missing out at school ... it's too big a number for us to ignore, and it reflects on the quality of our system." Endit