New data released today by the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) shows the number of school students staying in school until year 12 has gone up for the first time in almost 10 years.
The former Liberal Government ripped $30 billion out of schools. Since then, the number of students finishing high school in public schools dropped from 83 per cent to 73 per cent. The Liberal Party also attacked our teachers and called them "duds".
The Albanese Labor Government has a different approach which is about fixing the funding of our schools, tying it to reform and backing our teachers.
According to the ABS:
"The overall growth in the proportion of students staying from year 10 until year 12 was largely driven by students at government schools, which was up 1.3 percentage points to 74.3 per cent in 2024."
This is good news. We want more young people to finish school and then go on to TAFE or university. We are now finally seeing this head in the right direction for the first time in almost a decade.
We are also seeing more teachers in the classroom and more people wanting to become a teacher.
The ABS data highlights a rise in teacher numbers across the country, with the average student-to-teacher ratio falling to a new low since 2006 of 12.9 students to one teacher.
Australian schools had 320,377 full-time equivalent teaching staff in 2024, a 2.8 per cent rise from 2023.
This follows recent analysis of preliminary data from the Department of Education that showed both applications and offers are up for people wanting to study an undergraduate course in education.
Overall, preliminary results from tertiary admission centres are showing a 7 per cent increase in applications and a 14 per cent increase in offers compared to 2024.
These positive results come after the Albanese Labor Government and state and territory governments have been working together to tackle the teacher workforce shortage through the National Teacher Workforce Action Plan.
Many states and territories have delivered significant pay increases for the teaching profession over the past two years. They have also taken important steps to help reduce teacher workload.
We have brought back teaching scholarships worth up to $40,000 each to encourage more people to study teaching.
And for the first time ever, the Australian Government is introducing a Prac Payment for teaching students which provides financial support while they do the practical part of their course.
These initiatives come on top of the biggest reforms to teacher training in a generation, which include a stronger focus on how to teach children to read and write and do maths and manage behaviour.
Comment attributable to Minister for Education, Jason Clare:
"This is good news. We are starting to see things heading in the right direction for the first time in almost a decade.
"The Liberals ripped the guts out of school funding, called our teachers duds and did nothing to lift standards.
"We are starting to turn this around but there is a lot more to do."
