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This is the fifth in a series of annual reports to the Australian Parliament that tracks progress in Indigenous education and training and discusses issues under the major goals of the National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Education Policy (AEP). It enables the Commonwealth Minister for Education, Science and Training to report to the Parliament at the end of each funding year on outcomes associated with Indigenous education and training. This report gives an account of educational outcomes achieved in 2005. Four priority areas relate to improving outcomes for Indigenous students in literacy and numeracy, enrolments, attendance and retention, and in education outcomes across the pre-school, school, vocational and technical education (VTE) and higher education sectors. The Indigenous scores in the 2005 national benchmark testing program are lower than the 2004 scores on eight of the nine benchmarks, and in eight of the nine cases the gaps between Indigenous and all students' outcomes widened between the two years. Since benchmark testing began in 1999, there are few signs of sustained overall improvement with the gaps between Indigenous and non-Indigenous outcomes tending to widen. While there are more Indigenous students participating in schooling there has been little improvement in overall attendance rates. There remain significant gaps in the rates of Indigenous and non-Indigenous students at the primary school level and greater gaps at the secondary level.