Report on Government Services 2025

Schooling aims to provide education for all young people. The structure of primary and secondary schooling is the same across all states and territories in Australia.

Compulsory school education

Entry to school education is compulsory for all children in all states and territories. The child age entry requirements are subject to specific legislation within each state and territory (ABS 2024). In 2023, minimum starting ages generally restricted enrolment to children aged between four-and-a-half and five years at the beginning of the year (ABS 2024). (Refer to section 3, for more details.)

National mandatory requirements for schooling – as agreed in the National Youth Participation Requirement (NYPR) – came into effect through relevant state and territory government legislation in 2010. Under the NYPR, all young people must participate in schooling until they complete Year 10; and if they have completed Year 10, participate in full-time education, training or employment (or combination of these) until 17 years of age (COAG 2009). Some state and territory governments have extended these requirements for their jurisdiction.

Type and level of school education

Schools are the institutions within which organised school education takes place (a definition of ‘school’ is in the 'Explanatory material' tab) and are differentiated by the type and level of education they provide:

• Primary schools provide education from the first year of primary school – known as the ‘foundation year’ in the Australian Curriculum (the naming conventions used in each state and territory is included under 'foundation year (pre-Year 1)' in the 'Explanatory material' tab). In 2023, the structure of primary schooling is the same across all states and territories in Australia from pre-Year 1 to Year 6. Prior to 2022, primary school education was to Year 7 in South Australia, and prior to 2015 was to Year 7 in Queensland and Western Australia.
• Secondary schools provide education from Year 7 to Year 12 in all states and territories in Australia.
• Special schools provide education for students with one or more of the following characteristics: mental or physical disability or impairment; slow learning ability; social or emotional problems; or in custody, on remand or in hospital (ABS 2024).

Affiliation, ownership and management

Schools can also be differentiated by their affiliation, ownership and management, which are presented as two broad categories:

• Government schools are owned and managed by state and territory governments
• Non-government schools, including Catholic and independent schools, are owned and managed by non‑government establishments.

State and territory governments are responsible for ensuring the delivery and regulation of schooling to all children of school age in their jurisdiction. State and territory governments provide most of the school education funding in Australia, which is administered under their own legislation. They determine curricula, register schools, regulate school activities and are directly responsible for the administration of government schools. They also provide support services used by both government and non-government schools. Non-government schools operate under conditions determined by state and territory government registration authorities.

From 1 January 2018, the Australian Government introduced the Quality Schools package replacing the Students First funding model which had been in effect since 1 January 2014. More information on these funding arrangements can be found under 'Interpreting efficiency data' in the 'Explanatory material' tab.

The Australian Government and state and territory governments work together to progress and implement national policy priorities, such as: a national curriculum; national statistics and reporting; national testing; and teaching standards (PM&C 2014).

Nationally in 2022-23, government recurrent expenditure on school education was $85.9 billion, a 4.4% real increase from 2021-22 (table 4A.1). State and territory governments provided the majority of funding (68.5%) (figure 4.1).

Government schools accounted for $64.8 billion (75.4%), with state and territory governments the major funding source ($54.4 billion, or 84.0% of government schools’ funding). Non‑government schools accounted for $21.2 billion (24.6%), with the Australian Government the major funding source ($16.7 billion, or 79.0% of non‑government schools funding) (table 4A.1).

The share of government funding to government and non-government schools varies across jurisdictions and over time according to jurisdictional approaches to funding schools (more details are under 'Interpreting efficiency data' in the 'Explanatory material' tab) and is affected by certain characteristics, such as school structure and student body in each state and territory.

This report presents expenditure related to government funding only, not the full cost to the community of providing school education. Caution should be taken when comparing expenditure data for government and non‑government schools, because governments provide only part of school funding. Governments provided 60.8% of non‑government school funding in 2023, with the remaining 39.2% sourced from private fees and fundraising (Australian Government Department of Education unpublished).

Nominal Australian, state and territory government recurrent expenditure on school education is in table 4A.2. Data on Australian Government payments for school education services is in table 4A.3 and total government recurrent expenditure on government schools by school level is in table 4A.4.

Schools

In 2023, there were 9,629 schools in Australia (6,237 primary schools, 1,453 secondary schools, 1,422 combined schools and 517 special schools) (table 4A.5). The majority of schools were government owned and managed (69.7%).

Settlement patterns (population dispersion), age distribution of the population and educational policy influence the distribution of school size and level in different jurisdictions. Data on school size and level are available from Schools, 2023 (ABS 2024).

Staff

In 2023, there were 471,870 active full-time equivalent (FTE) staff in schools in Australia (51.1% working in primary schools and 48.9% in secondary schools). The majority of active staff were engaged in duties in government schools (61.7%) (table 4A.6).

Nationally in 2023, there were 311,655 FTE teaching staff, an increase of 1.4% from 2022. Of these 50.6% were teaching in primary schools and 49.4% in secondary schools (ABS 2024).

Student body

There were nearly 4.1 million FTE students enrolled in school nationally in 2023, a 1.1% increase compared with 2022 (table 4A.7). Student enrolments were in:

• Government schools – 2.6 million FTE students enrolled (63.9% of all FTE students). This proportion has decreased from a peak of 65.7% in 2019 and 2018, and is the lowest in the last 10 years of data reported
• Non-government schools – nearly 1.5 million FTE students enrolled (36.1% of all FTE students)
• The proportion of FTE students enrolled in government schools is higher for primary schools (68.7%) than secondary schools (58.0%) (table 4A.7).

A higher proportion of FTE students were enrolled in primary schools (55.4%) than in secondary schools (44.6%) (table 4A.7). The Northern Territory had the highest proportion of FTE students enrolled in primary school education (59.5%).

The enrolment rate is typically close to 100% for Australian children aged 15 years (consistent with requirements under the NYPR) but decreases as ages increase. Nationally in 2023, the school participation rate was 96.7% for Australian children aged 15 years (down from 97.3% in 2022) (table 4A.8). In 2023, the rate decreased to 90.2% of 16‑year-olds and 79.1% of 17-year-olds. Data for school participation rates for 15–19-year-olds by single year of age and totals are in table 4A.8.

Nationally, government schools had a higher proportion of students from selected equity groups than non‑government schools, including for:

• Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students – 8.3% of government school students and 3.3% of non-government school students in 2023 (table 4A.9)
• students from a low socio-educational background – 31.3% of government school students and 13.5% of non‑government school students in 2023 (table 4A.10)
• geographically remote and very remote students – 2.3% of government school students and 0.9% of non‑government school students in 2023 (table 4A.11).

In 2023, students with disability at government (25.5%), Catholic (21.8%) and independent schools (21.9%) required an education adjustment due to disability (table 4A.12). Data by level of adjustment is in table 4A.12.

The student to teaching staff ratio for all schools in 2023 was 13.1 students to one teacher, unchanged from 2022 (tables 4A.13–14). The student to teaching staff ratio was lower in non-government schools than government schools at 12.6 and 13.4 students to one teacher, respectively.

Secondary schools had a lower student to teacher ratio (11.8 students to one teacher) compared to primary schools (14.3 students to one teacher) (table 4A.14). This reflects different requirements for particular student groups, and for different school subjects in secondary schools.

School and Vocational Education and Training (VET)

School-aged people may participate in VET by either participating in ‘VET in Schools’, or (refer to section 5) remain engaged in education through a Registered Training Organisation (RTO). Nationally in 2023, there were 252,105 VET in Schools students, up by 3.8% since 2022 (NCVER 2024). Overall, 26.8% of peopleaged 15–19 years successfully completed at least one unit of competency as part of a VET qualification at the Australian Qualifications Framework (AQF) Certificate level II or above (at a school or RTO) in 2023 (table 4A.15).