ABOUT SCHOOLS, AUSTRALIA, 2012

Schools, Australia (cat. no. 4221.0) is an annual publication of data on schools, students and in-school staff involved in the provision or administration of primary and secondary education in government and non-government schools, for all Australian states and territories. Data is drawn from the National Schools Statistics Collection (NSSC) which is managed by the ABS, as at the schools census date, which for 2012 was Friday 3 August. All data are available by year; state and territory; and affiliation (government or non-government) with some data also available in further subcategories of the non-government classification (Catholic or Independent).

Schools are classified by:
· school type (primary, secondary, combined, special)
· size of primary and secondary enrolments.

Student data are available as counts of students and counts of full-time equivalent (FTE) students, and are classified by:
· full-time or part-time status
· Indigenous status
· sex
· school level (primary, secondary)
· level and Year of education
· age of student as at 1 July
· category of school.

In-school staff are generally reported against the usual level of school education (primary or secondary) in which the staff work; however, values include pro-rated figures where staff may work across more than one level of school education, particularly for staff in combined schools and staff working in more than one school.

In-school staff are available as counts of staff and counts of full-time equivalent (FTE) staff, and are classified by:
· school level (primary, secondary)
· sex
· major function (broad position role).

Outputs published in Schools, Australia, 2012 include:
· number of students
· number of full-time-equivalent students
· number of schools
· number of schools and student full-time equivalent by MCEEDYA remoteness indicator
· number of in-school staff
· number of full-time equivalent in-school staff
· ratio of full-time equivalent students to teaching staff
· measures of student engagement, including apparent retention rates.

Comparable statistics are provided for each state and territory, and nationally where national data is not the sum of the state and territory data (e.g. rates).

Data from the collection support national education reporting through the National Education Agreement, Report on Government Services, the National Report on Schooling in Australia, and the National Indigenous Reform Agreement.

GENERAL ACKNOWLEDGMENT

This publication draws extensively on information provided freely by state and territory departments with responsibility for school education and the Department of Education, Employment and Workplace Relations (DEEWR). Their continued co-operation enables the ABS to publish a wide range of education statistics. Information received by the ABS is treated in strict confidence as required by the Census and Statistics Act 1905 and in line with the Privacy Act 1988.

The ABS would also like to acknowledge the Tasmanian Department of Education for their collaborative efforts on the development of standards and procedures for the collection of unit record level data.

SOURCE DATA

These data are sourced from the National Schools Statistics Collection (NSSC) (non-finance), which is a joint undertaking of the various state and territory departments of education, the Department of Education, Employment and Workplace Relations (DEEWR), the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS), and the Standing Council on School Education and Early Childhood (SCSEEC). The scope of the collection is bound by the definitions of schools, students and staff published in the NSSC Data Collection Manual, which is available on request from the ABS. For further information, see the Glossary of this publication.