National Report on Schooling in Australia 2011

• The National Schools Specific Purpose Payment under the Intergovernmental Agreement (IGA) is based on primary and secondary enrolments and a per capita grant. This is indexed annually according to increases in the Average Government School Recurrent Costs (AGSRC) and growth in enrolments.

• The Intergovernmental Agreement also covers National Partnership Agreements. Each National Partnership Agreement has its own conditions and funding is based on the achievement of educational outcomes.

• Commonwealth Own-Purpose Expenses Annual Appropriations (COPEs) include a range of specific purpose programs.

Government school recurrent expenditure

Sources: Steering Committee for the Review of Government Service Provision, Report on Government Services (various years), Productivity Commission, Canberra; MCEECDYA National Schools Statistics Collection (NSSC) (Finance) 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011

See also Part 9: Additional Statistics Table 49

Figure 8.4 shows government school recurrent expenditure has increased from $26.9 billion to $34.5 billion from 2006–07 to 2010–11, an increase of 28.0 per cent or an annual average increase of 6.4 per cent.

As can also be seen in Figure 8.4, the Australian Government has contributed an increasing proportion of government school funding. This is due to National Partnerships, the broadbanding of programs as a result of new funding arrangements that commenced in 2009 and the impact of increasing primary school per capita funding in 2009. The increased Australian Government funding is reflected as an upward movement in its trend line. This was most pronounced between 2007–08 and 2008–09, with an increase of 38.4 per cent.

In 2011 the primary and secondary student government funding is set at 10.0 per cent of the AGSRC. (Primary funding increased from 8.9 per cent to 10.0 per cent of the AGSRC in 2009 to be in line with government secondary schools per capita funding.)

It should be noted that in 2009 the relative funding shares between the Australian and State and Territory governments were also impacted by the Australian Government transferring former capital funding into its broadbanded recurrent program (National Schools Specific Purpose Payment). It should also be noted that funding arrangements, including the methodology for allocating funding, differ among States and Territories. Historically, government school systems have not reported expenditure related to income received from parents and school communities under national reporting frameworks.

Government school recurrent per capita expenditure

The recurrent student per capita expenditure (shown in Figure 8.5 above) shows similar movements to total government school expenditure. Expenditure per student has increased from $11,874 to $15,002 from 2006–07 to 2010–11, an increase of 26.3 per cent or an annual average increase of 6.0 per cent.

Primary and secondary school recurrent per capita expenditure

Per capita recurrent expenditure in government schools has steadily increased over the past decade. Table 8.3 shows that in 2010–11 this expenditure reached $13,895 for primary students and $16,720 for secondary students.

Table 8.3 also shows a growth of 4.3 per cent in total per capita funding over 2009–10 to 2010–11, from $14,380 to $15,002.

Note: Figures include State/Territory and Australian Government contributions.

Recurrent per capita funding for secondary schools increased by 3.6 per cent from 2009–10 to 2010–11, while funding for primary schools increased by 4.9 per cent over the same period.

Secondary schools have a higher rate of per capita expenditure than primary schools, mainly because of the complexity and range of the education services provision and the smaller student–teacher ratios in the last two years of schooling.

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