The Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority (ACARA) has published the full National Report on Schooling 2022, revealing the government spent $22,511 per student in government schools in the 2021/22 financial year.
The report, published yesterday, outlines the national policy for school education in Australia and reports against key performance measures for schooling.
Last year, ACARA began progressively releasing this report, in a commitment to support transparency and accountability through making information more accessible.
This release also includes new information about government funding of schools as well as school income and expenditure. Each section of the report includes corresponding data portal pages which provide interactive data visualisations to enable data breakdowns, including by state, territory, and equity group.
Some of the highlights include:
School funding – 2021/22 financial year
- Total recurrent government funding for schooling was $78.69 billion. This was made up of $53.56 billion (68.1%) from state and territory budgets and $25.12 billion (31.9%) from the Australian Government (Commonwealth) budget.
- Overall, 74.6% ($58.74 billion) of total recurrent government funding was allocated to government schools and 25.4% ($19.95 billion) to non-government schools.
School income – 2022 calendar year
- In government schools, state and territory governments provided 75.6% of total gross income, Australian Government funding accounted for 20.7%, and the remaining 3.7% came from fees, charges, parent contributions and other private sources.
- In Catholic schools, the Australian Government contributed 60.7% of gross income, state and territory governments provided 15.7%. Fees, charges, and private contributions made up 23.6% of Catholic sector income.
- In independent schools, income from fees, charges and parent contributions made up 46.9% of total gross income, with income from other private sources contributing an additional 4.4%. Australian Government funding accounted for 38.3% of total gross income, and state and territory governments provided 10.4%.
School expenditure
In government schools – 2021/22 financial year:
- Average total government recurrent expenditure (money spent on the daily operations of schools) was $22,511 per student
- $10,458 per student (46.5% of total government recurrent expenditure) was spent on teaching staff salaries.
In non-government schools – 2022 calendar year:
- Average total recurrent expenditure was $19,372 per student
- $9,031 per student (46.6% of total recurrent expenditure) was spent on teaching staff salaries.
Capital expenditure – 2022 calendar year
Capital expenditure (money spent to buy or improve long-term fixed assets, such as renovating classrooms, or constructing a new library) was $4.35 billion in government schools, $1.93 billion in Catholic schools, and $2.95 billion in independent schools.
Read the National Report on Schooling in Australia 2022 here and access the related data.
