Enrolments in Private Schools on the Rise in Australia Surpassing Public Schools

February 17, 2025 TruthUSA

Retention rates have also improved across the board with fewer students dropping out.

New data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) reveals that private and Catholic school enrollments have significantly surpassed those of public schools.

Over the last five years, student enrollments in independent schools have increased by 18.5 percent, while government school enrollments saw only a 1 percent increase. Catholic school enrollments also rose by 6.6 percent between 2019 and 2024.

Overall enrollments in schools were 4.6 percent higher in 2024 compared to 2019.

The ABS statistics, released on Feb. 17, show that in 2024, 4.1 million students were enrolled in 9,653 schools.

In that same year, there was a 2.7 percent increase in non-government school registrations compared to the previous year. Government school enrollments, in contrast, grew by only 0.2 percent in a year.

New South Wales, Queensland, Tasmania, Northern Territory, and the Australian Capital Territory all recorded a decline in public school enrollments compared to 2023.

Retention Rates Have Increased Overall, with Non-Government Schools Leading

Meanwhile, Australia saw an overall retention rate to year 12 of 79.9 percent in 2024, up from 79.1 percent in 2023. The retention rate was higher among females at 83.5 percent compared to 76.5 percent for males.

Teaching Ratio Improving

The number of teaching staff also increased by 2.8 percent in 2024 to 320,377 full-time staff. In 2024, there were 230,809 female teachers and 89,569 male teachers.

“With the rise in the number of teaching staff, the average student-to-teacher ratio across Australian schools fell to a new low since 2006 of 12.9 students to one teacher,” Elliot added.

“Independent schools had the lowest student-to-teacher ratios with 11.7 students to one teacher. Meanwhile, government and Catholic schools had 13.1 and 13.3 students to one teacher respectively.”

Minister’s Stance

Minister for Education Jason Clare described the increasing retention rates up to year 12 as “good news.”

“We want more young people to finish school and then go on to TAFE or university. We are now finally seeing this trend in the right direction for the first time in almost a decade,” he stated in a statement.

“We are also seeing more teachers in the classroom and more people wanting to become teachers.”

Clare also noted analysis of preliminary data from the Department of Education showed an increase in the number of students wanting to study education.

He stated that tertiary admission centers had seen a 7 percent rise in applications, along with a 14 percent jump in offers compared to 2024.

Clare mentioned that the federal, state, and territory governments had been working to address the teacher shortage through the National Teacher Workforce Action Plan.

“Many states and territories have implemented significant pay increases for teachers over the past two years. They have also taken important measures to help reduce teacher workload,” he said.

Coalition Concerned About Curriculum Content

Shadow Education Minister Sarah Henderson criticized the curriculum as overcrowded, too complex, and ideologically driven.

She stated that the federal opposition’s research supported the inclusion of “sustainability, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander histories and cultures, and Australia’s engagement with Asia” in educational lessons.

“For example, in Year 2, math teachers are encouraged to use ‘First Nations Australians’ stories and dances to understand the balance and connection between addition and subtraction,” she noted in a statement.

“Year 10 math teachers are encouraged to apply Pythagoras’s theorem by exploring ‘navigation, design of technologies, or surveying by First Nations Australians, investigating geometric and spatial reasoning, and how these connect in trigonometry.’”

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