The Perrottet government has committed $173 million to extend a school tutoring program launched during the pandemic, saying tutoring could become "business as usual" for NSW students.
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The announcement came on the same day as NSW Labor pledged $400 million to creating a permanent literacy and numeracy tutoring scheme for students, under its Education Future Fund.
The duelling policies, both announced on Monday, come eight weeks ahead of the NSW election, where education is sharpening as a key issue.
Premier Dominic Perrottet says the tutoring plan, launched during the COVID-19 pandemic, had been incredibly successful.
Some $80 million was invested at the beginning of the year, and a further $173 million has been given to ensure it continues.
"When something works, we extend it," the premier said.
Education Minister Sarah Mitchell says the program will become "business as usual in our schools".
"Teachers say to me that they've had students who have struggled, who go to the program quite regularly," she said.
Others might attend for a short period just to learn a key concept they had missed.
Some 350,000 students and 15,000 staff had already been tutored through the program.
Under Labor's plan, a permanent, targeted literacy and numeracy tutoring program would begin in July, at a cost of $400 million over its first four years.
It would operate in both primary and high schools with a focus on the 2023 year 10 cohort that, Labor said, "recorded some of the worst NAPLAN outcomes in the state's history".
Labor's program would help 200,000 students in its first year.
The Productivity Commission in December highlighted the benefits of small-group tutoring with a review of research papers suggesting that it expedited reading outcomes by up to four months and maths outcomes by up to three months.
"Everywhere I go I hear of children falling behind at school, due to cancelled classes and falling outcomes," Opposition Leader Chris Minns said on Monday.
NSW Labor also committed to making sure all schools can reach needs-based funding benchmarks, saying the cash injection and a promise to eventually hit 100 per cent of the resourcing standard will end historic underfunding of public schools.
Under the schooling resource standard (SRS) model developed in the 2011 Gonski review, schools receive base funding plus loadings based on factors including students' socio-economic statuses, backgrounds and disabilities.
The federal government provides 20 per cent of the resource funding for public schools while the remainder comes from the states.
A McKell Institute analysis in December showed under the bilateral arrangement, NSW public school students receive about 92 per cent of the standard - slightly higher than the 90 per cent national average.
Labor said it would hit 95 per cent by 2025, two years earlier than planned.
It would close the gap completely during the life of the next bilateral agreement, either with its own funding or by negotiating with the federal government to increase its share.
That state-federal agreement, under negotiation, is expected to run until 2029 or 2030.
Australian Associated Press
