Public school students are learning in classrooms with higher student-to-teacher ratios than children in private educational institutions, sparking renewed calls to address the underfunding of government schools.
The data, released by the Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority (Acara), found the full-time equivalent student-teacher ratio is 12.8 for private schools and 13.6 for public schools nationally.
The gap is most striking in secondary education, where there are 12.4 students for each teacher at government schools compared with just 10.5 students at independent institutions and 12.2 at Catholic schools.
At primary schools, there are 14.4 students for each teacher, compared with 14 at independent schools and 15.4 at Catholic schools.
The Greens spokesperson for schools, Senator Penny Allman-Payne, said the findings were a result of decades of underfunding of public schools, that had widened the gap between government and non-government education.
She said to attract teachers to public schools and provide a “world-class education” for students, governments needed to properly fund public schools and pay teachers a better wage.
“To tackle teacher workloads, the system needs to be resourced properly,” she said.
“Right now, nearly every public school in the country is receiving less than 100% of the schooling resource standard, which is the minimum funding level required for students to achieve the minimum standard.
Allman-Payne said funding to private schools had increased at five times the rate of funding to public schools.
The student-teacher ratio gap between independent and public education has remained stubborn for more than a decade, with public teachers consistently teaching around two students a class more than independent educators.
New South Wales public schools performed the worst for school ratios across all states and territories, with 14.2 students for each teacher across primary and secondary schools, followed by Western Australia (14.1).
The NSW Teachers Federation president, Angelo Gavrielatos, said the true ratio was even worse when teacher shortages were taken into account.
“Teachers are reporting to us that merged and minimally supervised classes are a daily occurrence,” he said.
“Failing to act on unsustainable workloads and uncompetitive salaries has led to an exodus of teachers from the profession with resignations now overtaking retirements.
“Without urgent action the situation is only going to get worse. Two-thirds of teachers say they are burnt out and 60% say they plan to leave teaching within the next five years.”
The federal education minister, Jason Clare, has committed to “fair funding” of every public school to 100% of the SRS as part of the next national school reform agreement, not due to come into effect until 2025.
Clare was approached for comment.
State and territory ministers have also agreed to a national teacher workforce action plan, including the development of a campaign to “raise the value of teaching and promote teaching as a career”.
