Non-government schooling, a tale of two sectors

Australian Bureau of Statistics, Media Release, 21 March 2012

The number of students in the Independent schools sector has increased by 35 per cent since 2001, compared with 12 per cent growth in the Catholic schools sector over the same time, according to data released by the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) today.

The stronger growth rate of student numbers in the Independent sector is one of a number of differences between the two sectors, such as:

• lower student to teaching staff ratios (FTE) in the Independent sector with 14.2 and 10.4 for primary and secondary respectively, while the figures for the Catholic sector were 18.2 and 12.8
• higher proportions of teaching staff who are male in the Independent sector than the Catholic sector, with 34 per cent and 28 per cent respectively.

The non-government sector accounts for about one third of all Australian students, staff and schools reported in Australia.

Other figures released today show that:

• the number of male teaching staff working in government schools has decreased by two per cent. This is in contrast to the number of male teaching staff working in non-government schools over the same time, which rose by 25 per cent. This is despite overall increases of teaching staff in both the government and non-government schools over this period
• the number of female students in years 11 and 12 in 2011 outnumbered male students by one per cent and four per cent respectively. This is reversed in every other Year of schooling, where males outnumber females.

Back to news page.