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STAFF

Teaching Staff (Number)

Between 2001 and 2011, the number of of teaching staff across government and non-government sectors rose from 249,629 to 290,854, an increase of 41,225 (17%).

Of the 290,854 teaching staff in 2011, 186,075 (64%) were working in government schools and 104,779 (36%) were working in non-government schools.

Since 2001, the number of teaching staff in both government and non-government schools has increased. However, the number of teaching staff at non-government schools has increased at around triple the rate of teaching staff at government schools over this time. Non-government teaching staff numbers rose by 24,230 (30%) compared with government teaching staff numbers, which rose by 16,995 (10%) during the same period.


The numbers of both male and female teaching staff also increased in Australia between 2001 and 2011; however, the numbers of female teaching staff increased at more than double the rate than the increase in male teaching staff. Numbers of female teaching staff rose by 21% during this time, compared with 7% for male teaching staff.

The number of female teaching staff has increased in both the government and non-government sectors in the last decade. Similar to the national trend, the rate of increase in the non-government sector was more than double that of the increase in the government sector: 33% compared with 15%.

Between 2001 and 2011, the FTE of teaching staff across Australia increased by almost 15%. Over this time the greatest rise in teaching staff (FTE) occurred in the non-government sector, with an increase of 29%, while the government sector experienced an overall increase of 8%

In 2011, similar to previous years, the FTE of teaching staff in government schools comprised the majority of the overall FTE of teaching staff in Australia with 65%, compared with 35% in non-government schools.

In 2011, female teaching staff (FTE) comprised 70% of the FTE of all teaching staff in Australia, while male teaching staff (FTE) comprised 30%. These proportions were similar going back to 2001.

Since 2001, the FTE of female teaching staff has increased by 19.4%, almost four times the increase in the FTE of male teaching staff, which was 5.3% over the same period. Similar to the number of teaching staff, the FTE of male teaching staff showed different trends when reported by government and non-government affiliation to those reported nationally.

In 2011, females comprised a higher proportion than males of all FTE teaching staff at both primary and secondary school levels. However, FTE male teaching staff at secondary school level accounted for a much higher proportion of total FTE teaching staff (41.8%) than they did at primary school level (19.3%). Females at secondary and primary school levels comprised 58.2% and 80.7% of total teaching staff at those levels respectively.

In 2011, the student to teaching staff ratios (FTE) of government and non-government schools were relatively similar, reporting 13.9 and 13.6 respectively. Independent schools recorded the lowest ratio (12.1) while Catholic schools recorded the highest (15.0).

Since 2001, student to teaching staff ratios (FTE) at the Australia level decreased overall from 14.8 to 13.8. In this time government and Catholic schools reported the largest decreases in student-teacher ratios (FTE), from 14.8 to 13.9 and 15.9 to 15.0 respectively. Independent schools reported a decrease from 12.8 to 12.1.

Primary schools also saw an overall decrease in student to teacher staff ratios (FTE), from 17.0 in 2001, to 15.6 in 2011. Secondary schools decreased from 12.5 to 12.0 over the same period.