Of the 588 people to go from the department, 373 were teachers.

The department also lost 118 teacher assistants, 42 general staff such as clerical staff, bus and canteen attendants and 37 education facility or school maintenance attendants.

Another nine senior executives will go, along with eight allied health professionals and one professional staff member.

The shrinking department was revealed following questions by Opposition education spokesman Michael Ferguson in budget estimates in May.

Mr Ferguson said it was surprising so many staff would go in one year but, more importantly, that so many were frontline teaching staff.

''It will take decades to recover from the damage that Minister McKim has done to our school system,'' Mr Ferguson said.

''It demonstrates pretty clearly that even if you bundle in the Tasmanian State Service Award component, the frontline is where they've made the cuts.''

Mr Ferguson said he was particularly concerned about the loss of the allied health professionals, which include speech pathologists and social workers.

Education Minister Nick McKim said the reduction shown by the figures resulted from:

A new reporting rule that staff on unpaid leave were not counted, accounting for 229 employees.

Declining enrolments.

Fewer staff with the Polytechnic, Learning Services and Corporate Services.

He said the Workforce Renewal Incentive Program also accounted for the decline of teachers.

The Examiner previously reported that to March this year, 173 teaching staff had taken the government's early retirement package.

Department deputy secretary Andrew Finch said despite the staff losses there would be minimal effect on the department.