Private schools poach students with hi-tech teaching

Pandemic panic has delivered record enrolments to private schools as parents pull students from government schools.

Many private schools live-streamed lessons. Picture: iStock.

Worried parents have pulled their children out of government schools during the pandemic, flocking to private schools with hi-tech teaching.

Private school enrolments have surged 6.1 per cent during the two-year pandemic – six times faster than enrolments in state schools.

Students have also been more likely to drop out of government schools as lockdowns, mental health problems and a booming job market lure more teenagers away from classrooms.

Fresh data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics, released on Wednesday, reveals how private schools have cashed in on the pandemic by poaching students from government schools.

While most private schools offer live-streamed Zoom lessons, many state school students have struggled with schoolwork emailed by teachers for “remote learning’’ at home during Covid-19 lockdowns.

Bacchus Marsh Grammar school, west of Melbourne, enrolled 600 extra students last year – a 22 per cent increase.

Principal Andrew Neal said state school students had been logging in to his school’s Zoom lessons because they were having trouble learning at home during the world’s longest lockdown.

“Word of mouth about what we were doing in lockdown (resulted in) a significant number of parents deciding to vote with their feet,’’ he said. “We had kids from other schools joining in our Zoom lessons.

“Our kids were handing out the Zoom codes to their mates to join classes at our school.

“We had to quietly put a stop to it, although we thought those kids were getting something they really needed during lockdown.’’

Mr Neal said his school had live-streamed lessons from the start of lockdowns, as he felt “teacher-directed learning was superior … Nothing replaces having a teacher in front of the class.

“Instead of ploughing through emails, you speak to (the teacher) at the other end of the line and say, ‘I can’t do number 33’ and he says, ‘Here’s how you do it’.’’

The ABS schools data, recorded each August, shows private schools enrolled an extra 21,537 students last year – an increase of 3.6 per cent when Australia’s population grew by 0.6 per cent.

Between 2019 and 2021, independent schools enrolled 6.1 per cent more students, compared with 2.2 per cent for Catholic schools and 1 per cent for government schools.

Free state primary schools lost 13,368 students last year as parents enrolled their children in fee-paying private schools instead.

Private high schools enrolled an extra 17,599 teenagers last year, compared with 6980 extra enrolments in state schools.

Independent Schools Australia chief executive Margery Evans said low-fee independent schools had shown the strongest enrolment growth.

“In uncertain times and with huge disruptions due largely to the pandemic, even more Australian families turned to independent schools,’’ she said.

Free government schools educate 65 per cent of Australia’s students, with one in five students enrolled in Catholic schools and 15.4 per cent in independent schools.

Government schools have lost 4 per cent of their share of students over the past 20 years.

The exodus from state schools will be a boon for private schools that have lost 9696 fee-paying foreign students since Australia closed its borders in March 2020.

The ABS data also shows the first fall in year 12 completion rates over the past decade, confirming teachers’ warnings of a rise in truancy and “school refusal’’ among students who had fallen behind in the pandemic.

School retention rates fell from 84 per cent of students in 2019 to 83.1 per cent in 2021.