MAIN FEATURES


SCHOOLS

In August 2008, there were 9562 schools in Australia, of which 6833 (71.5%) were government schools and 2729 (28.5%) were non-government schools.

In 2008, 70.5% of all non-special schools were primary only, 15.9% were secondary only and 13.6% were combined primary/secondary schools. In 1998, these proportions were 73.2%, 16.3% and 10.5% respectively. Over the decade this equates to a decrease of 348 in the number of primary, and secondary schools, and an increase of 278 in the number of combined primary/secondary schools.


STUDENTS

In 2008, there were 3,434,291 full-time school students. The proportion of these students attending government schools was 65.9%, down from 70% in 1998.

Between 1998 and 2008, the number of full-time students attending government schools grew by 1.1% (from 2,239,375 to 2,264,554), while the number attending non-government schools increased by 21.9% (from 959,280 to 1,169,737).

There were 22,758 part-time school students in 2008, 1,745 less than in 2007. South Australia had the highest proportion of students in part-time study (2.6%), followed by Tasmania with 1.9% and the Northern Territory with 1.1 %.

In 2008, there were 151,669 Indigenous full-time school students, an increase of 3.0% or 4,488 students since 2007. Almost 59% of these students attended schools in Queensland or New South Wales. There were 22,731 Indigenous full-time students in senior secondary schooling (Years 10-12), across all states and territories in 2008, compared to 15,585 in 2003 - an increase of 45.9%.


SCHOOL PARTICIPATION RATES

At the Australian level, the school participation rates for full-time students aged 15 to 17 years, in 2008 were 94.7% for 15-year-olds, 82.9% for 16-year-olds and 62.7% for 17-year-olds, the latter rising from 62.1% in 1998.


APPARENT RETENTION RATES (ARR)

Apparent retention rates for Indigenous full-time school students, from Year 7/8 to Year 12 were much lower than for non-Indigenous full-time school students (46.5% and 75.6% respectively), however the Indigenous rate rose by 3.6% in comparison to 2007, while the non-Indigenous rate was unchanged.


STAFF

There were 247,106 full-time equivalent (FTE) teaching staff in 2008, 161,351 (65.3%) at government schools and 85,755 (34.7%) at non-government schools. This was an overall increase of 1.1% from the previous year, and 18.2% (38,026) higher than in 1998.

The number of FTE teaching staff in government schools has increased by 10.5% from 1998 compared to an increase of 36.0% in the non-government sector. In the year to August 2008, government FTE school teacher numbers increased by 0.3% and non-government FTE school teacher numbers grew by 2.6%.

The proportion of FTE teaching staff who are female continues to rise -- in 2008, 69.0% of all FTE teachers were female, 80.4% of all FTE teachers in primary schools and 57.3% in secondary schools. In 1998 65.5% of all FTE teachers were female, 77.5% of primary school teachers and 53.5% of secondary school teachers.

Overall, the average number of FTE primary school students per FTE teacher was 15.8. In government primary schools the average was 15.6 and in non-government schools it was 16.4. The equivalent figure for secondary schools was 12.0, with an average of 12.3 in government schools and 11.6 in non-government schools.