Forty percent of the fastest growing independent schools in Victoria are Islamic, and a quarter are Christian, new statistics show.
Data from the Australian Curriculum Assessment and Reporting Authority (ACARA) shows that Islamic schools in the state saw some of the strongest increases in enrolments in the decade between 2016 and 2025.
Of the top 20 private schools with the biggest growth in enrolments over the period, five were Christian and eight were Islamic, with the Islamic College of Melbourne in Tarneit growing by 135%, and Al Siraat College in Epping by 142%.
At Al Iman College in Melton South enrolments grew from 84 students in 2016 to 1,159 in 2025 – an increase of 1,268%.
The Saudi-funded Australian International Academy of Education in Coburg, which claims to be Australia’s oldest Islamic school, also added almost 1,000 students after opening a second site in Caroline Springs in 2014, with the Coburg campus now nearing capacity.
Rahat Arain, Deputy Principal and co-founder of Al Siraat College, where most students are of Middle Eastern or Indian subcontinental descent, told The Age that her school was now “bursting at the seams” and “trying to have our infrastructure play catch-up with the growth”.
“The pressures from the community wanting to enrol in an Islamic school have driven up the class sizes”, Ms Arain said.
“That’s something that we then address through extra support staff in the classroom. This adds pressure to staffing to make sure that we have what’s required for a growing school population.”
Ms Arain, who wears a full-face niqab veil, said all students learned Arabic and participated in prayers, while the curriculum incorporated Islamic teachings.
In New South Wales, a 2025 analysis showed that Islamic schools in the state added 5,074 students over the previous five years, and the 5.2% increase was the fastest annual enrolment growth of any sector during the period.
Enrolments in four of those Islamic schools increased by over 20% since 2020, placing them among the top 15 fastest-growing schools in the state.
The Islamic population is also growing in regional NSW, with a new mosque opening earlier this month in the town of Young, where Muslims now make up about 10% of the population.
Header image: A teacher and student at Al Siraat College in Epping (Al Siraat College).
