For the first time since 2017, there has been an annual increase in the proportion of students staying at school from Year 7/8 until Year 12. The proportion rose from 79.1 per cent in 2023 to 79.9 per cent in 2024, according to data released today by the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS).
Growing even more was the proportion of students staying at school from year 10 until year 12, up 1.2 percentage points to 79.9 per cent between 2023 and 2024.
The proportion of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students staying at school from Year 7/8 to Year 12 increased from 55.9 per cent in 2023 to 56.7 per cent in 2024 (0.8 percentage points).
Cassandra Elliott, ABS head of education statistics, said: "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 compared to a 0.9 percentage point rise to 88.1 per cent for students at non-government schools."
Rise in full time equivalent teachers improves student-to-teacher ratios
Australian schools had 320,377 full-time equivalent teaching staff in 2024, a 2.8% rise from 2023.
"With a 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," Ms Elliott said.
"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."
4.1 million students enrolled in school
Total school enrolments reached over 4.1 million across 9,653 schools in 2024, a rise of 1.1 per cent since 2023. Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander school student enrolments continued to grow, up 3.7 per cent from the previous year. Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students now make up 6.6 per cent of all school students.
