National party leader Barnaby Joyce and Education Minister Simon Birmingham have this month announced a review of regional and remote education, but the teachers’ union says it is just a distraction from cuts to Gonski funding.
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The review would be critical in addressing the gap between rural and metropolitan students, Mr Birmingham said, with just two-thirds of regional and remote students completing year 12 or an equivalent level of study.
He said regional and remote students made up 26.4 per cent of the population in 2016, but just 18.8 per cent of domestic undergraduate university students.
“This review will look at education from school entry to job success and how we can improve results,” he said.
“We must drive and better set policy to encourage ambition among our country students.”
NSW Teachers Federation Dubbo organiser Duncan McDonald said the announcement was a “diversion” from the fact the government has not committed to the final two years of the Gonski needs-based funding model.
Mr McDonald said the NSW Rural and Remote Education Blueprint for Action – funded under Gonski – was seeing results, and a failure by the federal government to commit to Gonski could cost Parkes electorate schools $37 million in 2018 and 2019.
“NSW already had a review into regional and rural schools education in 2014 … so under that reform $80 million was allocated to take the steps necessary to reduce the gap … between rural and urban schools,” he said.
“Those reforms brought millions of dollars into the seat of Parkes and that’s been delivered most effectively because of the Gonski funding model – it targets students in need.”
Parkes MP Mark Coulton said his government’s education review and Gonski schools funding were two completely separate issues.
“We’re committed to funding education – we’ve increased every year and we’ll continued to increase it every year,” Mr Coulton said.
“The Gonski model was flawed because it wasn’t the same, it treated different states differently.
“This review will look at all aspects of education opportunities for regional and country kids right through to university and it will look at issues around isolation, issues of choice, the types of courses that regional kids can access and the personal hardship of families and students that need to access education when they live in a regional area.”