4220.0 - Schools, Australia, Preliminary, 1998  
ARCHIVED ISSUE Released at 11:30 AM (CANBERRA TIME) 20/01/1999   
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  • School student growth and participation rates steady - ABS (Media Release)

MEDIA RELEASE

January 20, 1999
Embargoed: 11:30 AM (AEST)
5/99
School student growth and participation rates steady - ABS

Just over 80% of Australia's 16-year-olds attended school full-time in August 1998 while more than 92% of 15-year-olds were at school full-time, reflecting little change from 1997. The apparent retention rate of secondary school students to Year 12 was 71.6%.

The total number of school students increased by slightly more than 27,000 since August 1997 to just under 3.2 million full-time students in August 1998, according to preliminary results from the 1998 National Schools Census released today by the Australian Bureau of Statistics.

Government school student numbers increased by 0.4% from 1997 to 2,239,000 while attendance at non-government schools increased by 1.9% to 959,300. This growth is similar to that of the previous year.

The total number of schools fell slightly to 9,589, of which 73% (7,000) were government schools and 27% (2,589) non-government schools.

At government schools the number of full-time equivalent teaching staff increased by 0.4% to 146,129, while at non-government schools the equivalent number increased by 2.5% to 63,048.

The National Schools Census is based on data collected through the National Schools Statistics Collection, which was established through the work of the Ministerial Council on Education, Employment, Training and Youth Affairs Taskforce on School Statistics.

Details are in Schools Australia, Preliminary 1998 (cat. no. 4220.0) available from ABS bookshops. A summary of the publication may be found on this site.