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February 23, 2026 — 7:30pm
The share of students in NSW attending a public school has fallen for the seventh consecutive year, while the proportion of families choosing a Catholic or private school for their child has climbed to its highest point in the state’s history.
An analysis of government enrolment data by Catholic Schools NSW indicates the drop-off in public school enrolment share equates to 37,000 fewer students in that system in the past five years.
The enrolment share for Catholic schools now totals 21.8 per cent, a figure which combines systemic Catholic schools across NSW with independent Catholic schools, such as Riverview and St Joseph’s at Hunters Hill.
Non-Catholic private schools have also grown in popularity, according to the analysis, rising half a percentage point between 2024 and last year to 16.7 per cent, also the highest enrolment share in the state’s history.
Catholic Schools NSW chief executive Dallas McInerney said the sector educated an increasing share of disadvantaged students, with the proportion in the lowest socio-educational quartile rising to 15.7 per cent last year.
“We are seeing this growth right across NSW, the Central West, metropolitan Sydney and on the coast. The demand is everywhere,” he said.
The NSW Department of Education has a target to increase the enrolment share of NSW public schools from 62.9 per cent in 2023 to 65.5 per cent in 2034. Last year, public school enrolment share stood at 61.5 per cent, according to the Catholic Schools analysis.
NAB behavioural economist Dean Pearson, who has been surveying parents about their school choice for more than a decade, said families were opting for non-government schools because they had a perception of better academic standards and calmer classroom environments, while also offering better mental health support.
“Parents will see private schools as a safer, more controlled environment. We also know from our research that they perceive it to have better discipline, which is increasingly more important to parents,” he said.
When it comes to paying fees, parents framed the expense as an investment in their child’s future.
“So parents might mentally account for school fees as a longer-term investment, and that helps them rationalise the expense, despite the financial cost,” he said.
In the face of declining enrolments, the NSW Department of Education has rolled out several new policies, including relaxing strict catchment rules.
A NSW Department of Education spokesman said despite the decline, public schools still enrolled the majority of students, and noted new schools were being built in parts of Sydney where they were needed.
“We are also ensuring every NSW public school offers programs for high potential and gifted students, and delivering infrastructure upgrades to expand High Potential and Gifted Education opportunities at 33 partner schools across NSW,” he said.
“Together with the record school infrastructure pipeline, expansion of opportunities for gifted students and increasing choice for parents, we are prioritising lifting outcomes by strengthening the teaching workforce and introducing important reforms such as small group tutoring, phonics and number checks.”
More than 2000 school websites are also being refreshed because they have been “stagnant for a very long time”, preschools are being built on school sites in a bid to funnel those students into public schools, and numerous single-sex high schools have been converted to co-ed to appeal to primary school parents.
Kingsford mother Fleur Savage contemplated sending her daughters to Randwick Girls’ High, which was recently revamped as a co-educational high school.
“It was more appealing as a girls’ school,” she said.
After a tour, she felt while some aspects of the school were good, others were lacking. “The facilities, I felt, had a bit of a prison vibe,” she said.
“They had a new library area, which was really beautiful, but in regards to seating outside, gardens, and the uniform was fine, but it was … quite basic.”
The school, which is now undergoing an upgrade, did not compare well to public schools in New Zealand, where she grew up. “When I think about my own high school years, we had a swimming pool, we had a darkroom. We had so much,” she said.
She is not religious but chose Our Lady of the Sacred Heart College in Kensington because she liked the values, facilities, the fees and the sporting opportunities.
“My girls love sport. They love basketball. So, you know, they’ve got lots of other schools to play against. Overall, the Catholic system’s been amazing,” she said.
Marrickville parent Natalie Kozaitis toured three different schools but chose Casimir Catholic College in Marrickville.
“Every classroom we walked into, the interaction with the teachers was beautiful, it was so positive, it was casual and friendly but so respectful at the same time.”
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