SUMMARY OF FINDINGS


COMMENTARY ON STUDENT NUMBERS

Between 2013 and 2014, the number of students attending school in Australia rose from 3,645,519 to 3,694,101, an increase of 48,582 (1.3%). This is similar to the increase in the number of persons aged 5 to 17 years in the Australian population. Government schools remained the major provider of school education in Australia in 2014, with 2,406,495 students (65.1% of all students) attending, compared to 1,287,606 students (34.9% of all students) attending non-government schools.

During the 2013 to 2014 period, the number of students attending government schools increased by 31,471 (1.3%), while those attending Independent schools increased by 8,421 (1.6%), and students attending Catholic schools rose by 8,690 (1.2%). The increase in government school students was almost entirely due to growth at the primary level of education, with a 2.1% increase in such students over the period, while secondary student numbers remained static. Independent and Catholic school student numbers grew by between 1.1% and 2.1% at both primary and secondary levels.

Across the states and territories, the largest increase in student numbers occurred in Victoria, with a growth of 15,747 (1.8%), followed by Queensland where the increase was 11,741 (1.5%). In South Australia, the number of students in primary fell by 0.6% and by 0.4% in secondary, while in Tasmania the number of secondary students fell by 1.0%.

The number of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students attending school rose in all states and territories, in part reflecting efforts to improve identification and data collection strategies. Of the 192,485 such students in 2014, 84.2% attended government schools, 10.4% attended Catholic schools, and 5.4% attended Independent schools. Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students made up 6.7% of total enrolments in government schools, 2.6% in Catholic schools and 2.0% in Independent schools. Each of these figures represents a marginal increase on last year’s proportions.

Of the 192,485 Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander school students in Australia, the largest proportion was in New South Wales (31.7%), followed by Queensland (29.9%), and Western Australia (13.1%). As a proportion of all students within a state or territory, NT was by far the highest, with 40.5% of students there being Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander. The states with the next highest proportions were Tasmania (7.9%), and Queensland (7.3%).

In 2014 the number of students in Australia attending school part-time fell slightly to 20,336, with the proportion remaining steady at just 0.6% of all students.