4221.0 - Schools, Australia, 2012 Quality Declaration 
ARCHIVED ISSUE Released at 11:30 AM (CANBERRA TIME) 20/03/2013   
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COMMENTARY ON IN-SCHOOL STAFF

Between 2001 and 2012, total in-school staff increased by 72,410.5 full time equivalents (FTE) from 290,602.6 (FTE) to 363,012 (FTE), representing a rise of 24.9%. During that period, teaching staff (FTE) rose by 16.5%, however as a proportion of total in-school staff teaching staff fell from 76.5% to 71.3%.



In 2012, of the 258,985.6 (FTE) teaching staff, 167,151.9 (FTE) were at government schools and 91,833.7 (FTE) were at non-government schools. As a proportion of total in-school staff, teaching staff comprised 72% in the government sector and 70% in the non-government sector. The proportion of male teaching staff was higher in the non-government sector (33%) than in the government sector (28.5%).

As in previous years, the male/female split of teaching staff (FTE) varied considerably between primary and secondary levels of education. At the primary level, female teaching staff accounted for 80.8% of all teaching staff, while at the secondary level the figure was 58.9%.




Student/Teaching staff ratios

At the Australia level, the overall student (FTE) to teaching staff (FTE) ratio was 13.8, unchanged from the 2011 figure. For government schools, the ratio remained steady at 13.9, while Catholic and Independent schools each saw a marginal decrease of 0.1, to 14.9 and 12.0 respectively. Independent schools had the lowest ratios for both the primary level (14.6), and the secondary level (10.3).