Gonski Reforms Update – 9 May 2013

On 23 April 2013 the NSW Government signed up to Prime Minister Julia Gillard’s offer of a new intergovernmental agreement on funding for schools arising from the Gonski Recommendations.

The Agreement will see $5 billion of new money injected into NSW schools over a six year period.

Essentially the Agreement provides that the Federal Government will inject an unprecedented $3.27 billion dollars into NSW schools on the condition that the NSW Government invest an additional $1.76 billion.

Schools will see an extra $300 million in 2014. This will gradually increase over the following five years with most of the money flowing into schools in the 5th and 6th year of the Agreement.

The detail on how this will be funded by the State is scarce however we do know that:

1. Up to 1000 job cuts from education support staff working in schools and in the state and regional offices, announced in September last year will still proceed.

2. There will be a 1% efficiency dividend across the public service applying from 2015 to 2016.

3. There could be increases to TAFE and VET fees but this remains unclear as to whether these are additional to the increases announced in September last year. We do know that DEC is awaiting IPART’S review of VET reforms, fees and subsidies, which will then inform decisions around any changes made to TAFE fees and subsidies.

Despite the additional funding, the NSW Government intends to proceed with its record job cuts across the Department of Education, using Local Schools, Local Decision, Every Student, Every School and Empowering Local Schools as an excuse to cut jobs and undermine job security for staff.

The state government is using what could have been a positive investment in NSW as yet another excuse to cut jobs and undermine the delivery of the state’s public services by way of the 1 per cent efficiency dividend.

The PSA is pursuing a range of options and will keep you informed.