4220.0 - Schools, Australia, Preliminary, 2000  
ARCHIVED ISSUE Released at 11:30 AM (CANBERRA TIME) 12/02/2001   
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MEDIA RELEASE

February 12, 2001
Embargoed: 11:30 AM (AEST)
13/2001
More than 30% of students go to non-government schools

The drift away from Government schools continued in 2000, with 31% of Australian school students attending non-Government schools, according to figures released today by the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS).

The number of students attending non-Government schools increased by 20,205 to 999,181, while the number attending Government schools increased by 601 to 2,248,275.

The percentage of students at non-Government schools has steadily increased over the past 20 years, up from 22% in 1980 and 28% in 1990.

In August 2000 the Australian community was served by 9,595 schools, with 3,247,456 full-time students and 218,059 teaching staff (full-time equivalent).

Teaching staff (full-time equivalent) in government schools numbered 150,610, an increase of 128 over the previous year. In non-government schools, teaching staff increased by 2,207 (3.4%) from 1999, to 67,449.

The apparent retention rate of secondary students from Year 10 to Year 12 remained at the same level as the previous year at 74.4%. In 1990 the equivalent rate was 66.5%.

In 2000, 80.8% of 16 year olds were at school, as were 61.6 % of 17 year olds. Looking back to 1990, 75.7% of 16 year olds and 50.2% of 17 year-olds were at school.

The publication contains State breakdowns for most data.

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 2000 (cat. no. 4220.0) available from ABS Bookshops. A summary of the main points of this publication can be found on this site.