Students quit public high schools to go private

NEARLY 5000 students shifted from public to private high schools in NSW this year.

NEARLY 5000 students shifted from public to private high schools in NSW this year, bringing to a halt two years of increasing enrolments in the government system.

While enrolments in public primary schools rose by more than 4700 students in February, the enrolments in state secondary schools fell 4125 to 312,382.

The dramatic decline follows two years of increasing enrolments in state high schools, with 1800 more students enrolling in 2010 and 600 more students last year, making the drop in student numbers this year about 4720.

While high school enrolments fell in 2008 and 2009, the drop was smaller: about 1120 fewer students in 2009 and 665 fewer in 2008.

A spokesman for the NSW Education Department said the figures would be finalised in the August census of school students and could change.

He said enrolments were cyclical and affected by factors including parent choice, retention rates, and changes in the number of school-age children.

In the state budget yesterday, school funding was boosted by 3 per cent, including $12.4 million to build six new schools and new facilities in a further three.

The biggest increase was for early childhood education, which will be boosted by 35 per cent next year, worth $98m, primarily targeting preschools as part of the NSW government's commitment to provide universal access for all children in the year before they start school.

NSW has had one of the lowest attendance rates at preschool in the nation, and faces a daunting task to lift participation by 2013 to the 95 per cent rate agreed with the federal government. In 2008, 81.9 per cent of NSW children attended preschool, which rose to 86.2 per cent in 2010. While last year's figures are still being finalised, the NSW government faces a big challenge to meet the 95 per cent target next year.

Five of the six new schools announced yesterday are in areas of Sydney with growing populations. Three are planned around Concord and Lakemba in western and southwestern Sydney, two in The Ponds in the northwestern Hills district, and one at Lake Cathie on the north coast.

The backlog in school maintenance is addressed with an extra $20m in the budget, increasing the funding for maintenance by 22 per cent over two years.

Funding for the almost 2000 primary, central and special government schools will rise 3.2 per cent to $5.357 billion next year, while spending on the 398 government high schools will increase 2.6 per cent to $4.851bn. Non-government schools get a boost of 4.9 per cent, to about $960m.

Education Minister Adrian Piccoli highlighted the allocation of $26m as part of the government's five-year $261m literacy and numeracy action plan, $2.2bn for vocational education and training, $48m across three years for students with disabilities and $76m to start 10 new major building and IT projects in the TAFE system.

"This budget promotes our objective of improving the future of education in NSW for students, as well as enhancing the NSW skills base, meeting the needs of students with disability, and tackling literacy and numeracy," he said.