Enrolments at some WA schools plummeted in 2020 as international border closures halted immigration to Australia.
Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) figures showed the extent to which reduced numbers of migrants to Australia had affected school enrolments since the advent of COVID-19.
In Western Australia, the number of students at some schools with Intensive English Centres, which offer specialised English teaching for immigrant and refugee students, dropped by as much as 30 per cent.
Jim Bell, the deputy director-general of student achievement at the Department of Education, said preliminary data showed that international border closures had affected enrolments in some Intensive English Centres in Western Australia and the rest of the country.
Adult learning schools affected
Schools that provide adult learning, in particular, saw student numbers tank in 2020.
Overall enrolments for Semester 2 at North Lake Senior Campus dropped from 377 to 262 between 2020 and 2021, while student numbers at Cyril Jackson Senior Campus went from 403 to 285 over the same period.
Some primary schools also experienced a drop in registrations, including Nollamara and Koondoola. However, other schools, such as Beaconsfield and Highgate, continued a rising trend in enrolments.
Steven Nicholas, the director of education and training statistics at the ABS, said since the arrival of COVID the annual growth rate of numbers of students enrolled in Australian schools was the lowest since 2008.
"This is not unexpected given the large decrease [a net loss of 88,000 people] in net overseas migration experienced in 2020–21," he said.
This was the first net overseas migration loss since 1946.
The ABS data showed the number of full-fee-paying overseas students across Australia fell by almost a quarter in 2021, with 5,480 fewer students.
The WA Department of Education said a more detailed breakdown of enrolment figures — due in March — would show how enrolments at Intensive English Centres specifically, as opposed to whole schools, had been affected by international border closures.
'Regular fluctuations'
Mr Bell said enrolment numbers at Intensive English Centres experienced "regular fluctuations" in line with migration numbers and the granting of visas and refugee status by the federal government.
Margaret Corrigan is the president of the Australian Council of TESOL Associations (ACTA), which represents teachers of students who speak languages other than English.
She said reduced student numbers had financial and programming impacts on affected schools.
"Where schools have had to drop their numbers of students, they would then be dropping in numbers of staff," Ms Corrigan said.
"That probably is going to be truncating the number of services that they are able to offer."
Mr Bell confirmed that teachers who worked in affected WA schools had been transferred to work in other schools.
"Staff employed in schools with Intensive English Centres have arrangements in place that enable their expertise to be shared across schools where necessary," Mr Bell said.
Ms Corrigan said in states that had had extensive lockdowns there had also been issues with teachers at schools with declining enrolments also having to transition to remote learning.
