More students attend a private school than at any other time in the state’s history after enrolments in the NSW public education system dropped by almost 7000 pupils last year.
The failure to build new public schools in rapidly growing parts of Sydney, declining birth rates in affluent suburbs and parents seeking out faith-based education options are all driving state school enrolment decline.
It is the seventh year in a row that public sector enrolment share has fallen, official data shows.
Private school girls are driving the shift at a secondary level, with an extra 20,000 female students enrolled at independent schools since the pandemic.
ABS statistics released on Thursday show, across all levels of schooling, independent school enrolment share grew to 16.6 per cent, or about 209,000 students.
The shift to private schools in NSW mirrors a trend observed across the rest of the country, with enrolments in independent schools rising by 31 per cent or 168,448 students between 2016 and 2025.
Catholic school enrolments grew to 21.8 per cent of all students in 2025, with 274,763 students across systemic or independent Catholic schools.
Public school enrolments made up 61.5 per cent of all students last year, falling to 773,956 students.
A NSW Department of Education spokesperson said strategies being implemented to boost enrolments, including a program called Inspire in which every school will offer gifted education options to high potential students, would take time to take effect. Other measures to boost enrolments include merging single-sex high schools to create co-ed ones, refreshing school websites and relaxing the strict enrolment policy, giving parents more options to enrol out of area.
The spokesperson also noted enrolments were in part fuelled by a lack of public schools in high-growth areas.
“The NSW government is addressing that by delivering, through a record education budget, new and upgraded schools where they are needed in high-growth areas, ensuring all families have access to a world-class public education close to home,” she said.
“Where schools have been built, parents are embracing the public system – Melonba Public School in north-west Sydney opened last year and already has more than 900 enrolments.”
NSW Independent Schools Association chief executive Margery Evans said much of the private school enrolment growth was in low- and mid-fee faith-based schools serving low- to middle-income families in Sydney’s newest and fastest growing suburbs.
“This is across all fee levels, across all geographic areas, across all school types … Enrolment differences can’t just be attributed to not building enough schools,” she said.
High fee schools charging tens of thousands of dollars in fees predominantly located in the city’s east and north made up just 13 per cent of the sector, she said.
“The diversity of our schools is increasing. We’re expecting that there will be a Hindu school open in term one next year. And then relatively shortly after that, there’ll be a Sikh school opened. So those schools will continue to attract families who are making a choice about faith and culture.”
Some public schools have bucked the enrolment trend, such as Cumberland High in Carlingford, in the city’s north-west, where enrolments doubled from 663 students in 2017 to 1173 last year.
Principal Luke Fulwood said parents were attracted to the school’s track record of strong HSC results.
“I think when they see a school that’s doing really well, adding value to the students, providing really great opportunities for students to do their best in their learning, I think that also helps the families to see us as the school that they want to send their kid to for high school,” he said.
In Sydney’s south-west, the popularity of Islamic schools have exploded.
Across its Greenacre, Beaumont Hills and Hoxton Park campuses, Malek Fahd added 846 pupils over the past five years. Al Noori Muslim School in Greenacre added an extra 767 over the same period while Al-Faisal’s Auburn campus enrolments climbed by 345 students.
Unity Grammar, an Islamic school in Austral, had enrolled an additional 500 students in the past five years and has 1428 students.
Executive principal Sam Halbouni said there were a number of Islamic schooling options, but students were attracted to his school’s curriculum offerings such as HSC and apprenticeship options, as well as a focus on wellbeing.
“Our school has its own point of difference … we cater for students irrespective of their ability,” he said.
“I think that they really want to know whether Islam is part and parcel of the fabric of the school, and that’s really the deciding factor whether they enrol their child at the school.”
The school runs trips to Medina and Mecca in Saudi Arabia to explore Islamic heritage, history and architecture. School alumni travel to rural Cambodia every year to build basic infrastructure.
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Disclaimer : This story is auto aggregated by a computer programme and has not been created or edited by DOWNTHENEWS. Publisher: www.smh.com.au
