Schools, Australia methodology

The structure of primary and secondary schooling in Australia differs among states and territories.

In 2019, the two basic patterns in formal schooling in Australia were:

• In all states and territories except South Australia, primary school was pre-year 1 to year 6, and secondary school consisted of year 7 to year 12.
• In South Australia, primary school generally consists of pre-year 1 to year 7 and secondary school generally consists of year 8 to year 12. The structure of schooling for some non-government schools changed in 2019, with year 7 becoming the first year of secondary school.
   

Naming conventions for the first year of primary school (pre-year 1) differ between states and territories. Pre-year 1 is known as:

• kindergarten in New South Wales and the Australian Capital Territory
• preparatory in Victoria, Queensland and Tasmania
• reception in South Australia
• pre-primary in Western Australia
• transition in the Northern Territory, and
• foundation year in the Australian Curriculum.
   

Information on preschool education is available annually through Preschool Education, Australia (cat. no. 4240.0).

The age at which children must attend school is the subject of specific legislation within each state and territory. In 2019, the minimum starting ages for pre-year 1 generally restricted enrolment to children aged between four and a half and five years at the beginning of the year.

• New South Wales. Children must attend school from the age of six.
• Victoria. Children must attend school from the age of six; however children turning five before 30 April may start school in that year.
• Queensland. Children must attend school from the age of six years and six months.
• South Australia. Children must attend school from the age of six; however children turning five before 1 May may start school in that year.
• Western Australia. Children must start school from the beginning of the year if they are to reach the age of five years and six months during the year.
• Tasmania. Children must attend school from the age of five.
• Northern Territory. Children must attend school from the age of six.
• Australian Capital Territory. Children must attend school from the age of six.
   

Changes to schooling structures over time is described in the Explanatory notes.

Affiliation categorises schools and their enrolments and refers to the systems that administer their operation. The affiliation classification has two broad categories, government and non-government.

In this product, the subcategories of non-government affiliation are reported as either Catholic (systemic and non-systemic) or independent (Anglican schools and other schools which have associations with religious or secular bodies, or are entirely independent).

An ancillary education establishment is defined as an establishment which satisfies all of the following criteria:

• its major activity is the provision of aspects of full-time day primary, secondary or special school education to students supplementary to that provided by schools, and
• it has attached to it (possibly on a part-time basis) at least one permanent teacher or other supervisory person, and
• students from more than one school may undertake education at it.
   

Examples include:

• hospital and prison schools (those not classified as special schools)
• schools of the air which do not have officially recognised student enrolments (although students may be supervised with work programs from their 'home school' or a distance education school)
• an education unit attached to a museum or art gallery, and
• a work experience, music or computing centre, etc.
   

Rates in this product are termed ‘apparent’ as they are calculated using aggregate student data and have been developed to provide indicative measurements of student engagement in secondary education. The term 'apparent' is used to refer to all rates in this product that are not the 'actual' rate that would result from direct measurement of the movement of each individual student.

This statistic measures the proportion of an age group of students (full-time and part-time) that has continued in school from one year level to the next. See Explanatory notes for further information.

This statistic provides an indicative measure of the proportion of students who have stayed at school, for a designated calendar year and year level of education. It is expressed as a percentage of the respective cohort group that those students would be expected to have come from, assuming an expected rate of progression of one year level per calendar year. For example, an apparent retention rate for years 10 to 12 in 2019 would measure the proportion of year 10 students in 2017 that had remained in the schooling system until year 12 in 2019.

The estimated resident population is an estimate of the population of Australia, based on data from the five-yearly ABS Census of Population and Housing, and is updated quarterly using information on births, deaths, and overseas and internal migration provided by state, territory and Australian Government departments. See Australian Demographic Statistics, June 2019 (cat. no. 3101.0) for further details. The Explanatory notes contain further information on how this series is used in Schools, Australia, 2018 (cat. no. 4221.0).

This is based on the minimum workload required to ensure that a student could complete a given year level in a single calendar year. The prescribed workload may vary between states and territories and between year levels.

The full-time equivalent value is a measure used to indicate the level of staffing resources. Staff who are employed full-time and engaged solely on activities which fall within the scope of this collection have a full-time equivalent value of 1.0. All full-time equivalent values are rounded to one decimal place.

Staff not employed on a full-time basis, and/or engaged in a combination of in-scope and out-of-scope activities, have their full-time equivalent value calculated on the basis of the proportion of time spent on in-scope activities compared with staff that would be considered full-time.

Students are classified as being of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander origin based on information provided by the student, or their parent/guardian, on the school enrolment form.

The National Schools Statistics Collection is a collection of data on students, schools, and staff involved in the provision or administration of primary and secondary education, in government and non-government schools, for all Australian states and territories. A statistical summary of the results of the National Schools Statistics Collection is the subject of this ABS publication.

A part-time student is one who undertakes a workload less than that specified as full-time. The full-time equivalent value of a part-time student is calculated by dividing the student's workload by that which is considered to be the minimum workload for a full-time student by that state or territory. The minimum workload for a full-time student is that which would ensure the student could complete a given year level in a single calendar year.

Methods for estimating the full-time equivalent value of part-time students vary between states and territories due to different policy and administrative arrangements.

A school is an education establishment which satisfies all of the following criteria:

• its major activity is the provision of full-time day primary or secondary education or the provision of primary or secondary distance education
• it is headed by a principal (or equivalent) responsible for its internal operation, and
• it is possible for students to enrol for a minimum of four continuous weeks, excluding breaks for school vacations.
   

The term 'school' in this product includes schools in institutions and hospitals, mission schools and similar establishments.

The term 'school' in this product excludes preschools, early learning or long day-care centres, senior technical and agricultural colleges, evening schools, continuation classes and institutions such as business or coaching colleges.

Multi-campus arrangements are counted as one school. Changes to school counts in this product can occur when multiple schools amalgamate into a single multi-campus school, or multi-campus schools divide into separate schools.

A special school satisfies the definition of a school and enrols students with one or more of the following characteristics:

• mental or physical disability or impairment
• slow learning ability
• social or emotional problems
• in custody, on remand or in hospital.
   

Special schools include special assistance schools, as defined under the Australian Education Act, 2013. These are non-government schools that are:

1. likely to be recognised by the state minister as a special assistance school, and
2. primarily established to cater for students with social, emotional or behavioural difficulties.
    

Staff are persons engaged in the administration and/or provision of day primary, secondary or special school education, or primary or secondary education by distance education at in-scope education establishments.

The reporting of staff is split into two broad categories, In-school staff and out-of-school staff. In-school staff spend the majority of their time actively engaged in duties at one or more schools or ancillary education establishments. Out-of-school staff consists of executive staff and staff not generally active in schools or ancillary education establishments. Each of these is further categorised by major function, as determined by the duties performed.

Staff not employed on a full-time basis have their full-time equivalent value calculated on the basis of the proportion of time spent on in-scope activities compared with staff that would be considered full-time.

Staff absent from a position for a period of less than four continuous weeks, as at the census date, are included. Staff who have been absent from a position for a period of four or more continuous weeks are excluded. Replacement staff are included if they occupied the position for four or more continuous weeks.

Included in the definition of staff are:

• staff teaching evening secondary students attending secondary colleges
• staff paid from school grant payments, and
• staff employed under various government sponsored employment schemes.
   

Excluded from the definitions of staff are:

• persons not under the control of the director-general (or equivalent), e.g. nurses or therapists working for the state or territory department of health (or equivalent)
• persons responsible to a state, territory or Commonwealth minister of education but not to the director-general (or equivalent), and
• persons under the control of the director-general (or equivalent) who satisfy one or more of the following criteria:
   
  • are cleaners, whether salaried or employed on contract
  • are involved in the management and/or maintenance of boarding or hostel facilities for students
  • are paid from privately raised funds
  • have been occupying, or expect to be occupying, a position for a period of less than four continuous weeks at the census date, and/or
  • are persons replacing those who are temporarily absent.
     

A student is a person who, as at census date, is formally enrolled in a school and active in a primary, secondary and/or special education program at that school. Students may be enrolled at more than one school, however jurisdictions employ strategies which ensure that, as far as possible, such students are reported only once in this collection.

Persons not present at a school on the National Schools Statistics Collection census date are included if they were expected to be absent for less than four continuous weeks.

Student participation in vocational education or training programs in schools, school-based apprenticeships or traineeships, work placements or tertiary extension studies, or a combination of such programs as part of the student’s school enrolment, is in scope for the National Schools Statistics Collection. The workload of these subjects/programs (which may take place outside the school premises) is included in a student’s aggregate workload to determine whether a student is classified as full-time or part-time, and in calculating the full-time equivalent for part-time students. The total workload recorded is capped at 1.00 full-time equivalent value.

Teaching staff are defined as those who spend the majority of their time in contact with students. They support students either by direct class contact or on an individual basis, and are engaged to impart school curriculum.

For the purposes of this product, teaching staff also includes principals, deputy principals, campus principals and senior teachers mainly involved in administration. Teacher aides and assistants, and specialist support staff are excluded, except assistant teachers working in homeland learning centres and community schools in the Northern Territory.

Year level of education comprises pre-year 1 through to year 12, including ungraded primary and ungraded secondary.

School level comprises primary and secondary.

Variations in schooling structures between the states and territories result in differences in the year levels that comprise school levels. In particular, variation occurs in the treatment of year 7, which is the first year level of secondary school for all states and territories except South Australia, where for most schools in 2019 it was the last year level of primary school.

For information on the structure of schooling in the various states and territories in Australia, see Appendix - differences in schooling structures. The Explanatory notes contain further information on data comparability.

This national collection was established between 1980 and 1984 through the work of the former Australian Education Council, superseding individual state and territory based schools collections conducted by the ABS. Oversight of the collection rests with the Education Council.

Data on government and non-government schools are collected from administrative school enrolment databases, collated by the ABS through the non-finance National Schools Statistics Collection. In the case of government schools, the data are supplied to the ABS by each state/territory education authority. For non-government schools, the data are supplied to the ABS by the Australian Government Department of Education, Skills and Employment.

Most education authorities supply the ABS with unit record level data for students and schools, which are subsequently processed and output in aggregate format.

For information on the institutional environment of the ABS, including the legislative obligations of the ABS which cover this collection, please see ABS Institutional Environment.

This publication contains data on schools, students and staff involved in the provision or administration of primary and secondary education, in government and non-government schools, for all Australian states and territories including Other Territories and Norfolk Island.

Schools are classified by level of education (primary, secondary, combined or special) and affiliation (government or non-government, with non-government further subcategorised as Catholic or independent).

Students are classified by level and year of education, indigenous status, full-time or part-time status, age at 1 July, affiliation of school and sex.

Staff data are available as counts of staff or full-time equivalent value of staff. Categories used for reporting in-school staff may include pro-rated figures reported against more than one classification. This includes the classification of school level (particularly for staff in combined schools and staff working in more than one school) and major area of activity.

Full-time equivalent in-school staff are classified by level of school education (primary or secondary), major function (broad position roles) and sex.

Counts of in-school and out-of-school staff are classified by major function (broad position roles) and sex.

Outputs in the publication include the number of:

• students
• full-time equivalent students
• schools
• in-school staff
• full-time equivalent in-school staff
• out-of-school staff
• full-time equivalent out-of-school staff
• the ratio of full-time equivalent students to teaching staff, and
• various measures relating to students, including apparent retention rates.
   

Comparable statistics are provided for each of the states and territories, and nationally where appropriate.

Student to teaching staff ratios include staff who have class contact but are not teachers, as well as staff who do not have a permanent class of students but are teachers (e.g. specialist teachers such as foreign language teachers). Thus, these figures are not indicative of class sizes.

The National Schools Statistics Collection is based on the national school census that is conducted annually on the first Friday in August by each state and territory department of education and the non-government education systems. Information is disseminated through the ABS website the following February.

The National Schools Statistics Collection is based on enrolment information from education administrative data systems at the time of the school census, collected in accordance with agreed national standards and definitions. For government data, each school provides and/or validates the information reflecting their enrolments to the relevant state education department. Each state and territory education department processes the data so that data forwarded to the ABS represents, or can be used to derive, student counts (a count of natural persons within a system of education).

Non-government data are co-ordinated through the Australian Government Department of Education, Skills and Employment.

The ABS undertakes validation of all received data prior to publication to ensure nationally comparable and historically consistent output.

Due to the different enrolment systems, the ability to manage multiple records of enrolment for a student may vary among jurisdictions. This may result in a small degree of over-reporting of student numbers in some jurisdictions.

Some minor differences exist across jurisdictions in the interpretation of the standards applying to the collection and the ability of systems to collect data to the specifications of the collection. This may affect comparisons of school counts, student counts and student full-time equivalent values. Any differences are annotated in the tables where relevant.

National Schools Statistics Collection school and student information is a subset of the enrolment information provided by the various education authorities. Staff information is a subset of those authorities’ administrative staff and human resources data.

The application of National Schools Statistics Collection business rules may result in counts which differ from those in other datasets originating from the same education authorities. For example, student counts may not reconcile to enrolment counts available in alternate datasets where multiple enrolments were reported for those students enrolled in more than one school. Similarly, schools counts may not reconcile to school counts reported elsewhere due to differences in the definition of a school. These issues are addressed in the Explanatory notes.

The production of aggregate counts from unit record level data by the ABS may lead to a difference between these and counts that would be obtained where the data are aggregated by another party. Again, the different application of business rules would be the source of any such differences.

At times, jurisdictions may make changes to their administrative systems that impact on the comparability of statistics between years. Key changes are documented in the explanatory material accompanying collection outputs.

Other reporting of information about schools, staff and students:

• State and territory governments report on schools, students and staff in their Annual Reports.
• State and territory governments provide National Schools Statistics Collection data to the Australian Government Department of Education, Skills and Employment for Commonwealth funding purposes.
• State and territory governments provide school, student and staff data to the Australian Curriculum Assessment and Reporting Authority (ACARA) for school level reporting.
• National Schools Statistics Collection data are reported through the National Report on Schooling in Australia, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Education Action Plan, and the Report on Government Services.
• The Australian Government Department of Education, Skills and Employment reports on student and staff data for non-government schools. These data are collected for the purposes of administering the Australian Education Act 2013.
   

The five-yearly Census of Population and Housing includes information on children attending school and the occupation of Australians (including teachers).

The ABS estimated resident population series is used in the calculation of some student-related measures in this publication. It is used as a denominator to calculate students as a proportion of the population. The estimated resident population is based on final data from the most recently published ABS Census of Population and Housing, updated quarterly using information on births, deaths, and overseas and internal migration provided by state, territory and Australian Government departments. See Australian Demographic Statistics (cat. no. 3101.0) for further details. These measures are subject to estimation error where the conceptual bases under which the data are collected and compiled differ. For example, there are a very small number of students counted in the schools collection that are not included in the estimated resident population (for example students who are children of foreign diplomats). For more information see the Explanatory notes.

Schools, Australia contains detailed explanatory notes and a glossary which provide information on the data sources, counting rules, terminology, classifications and other technical aspects associated with these statistics. All aggregate data are collected and reported to standard classifications as stated in the National Schools Statistics Collection Notes, Instructions and Tabulations manual. Unit record level data are collected and reported to classifications as stated in the National Schools Statistics Collection Data Collection Manual, and align with the aggregate data specifications in the Notes, Instructions and Tabulations manual. Both documents are available from the ABS on request.

If the information you require is not available from either the publication or the data cubes, contact the National Information and Referral Service on 1300 135 070.