NT schools to receive exta $1 billion in funding

ABC NEWS (Australia)

Northern Territory public schools will receive an extra billion dollars in funding, under a new agreement between the territory and commonwealth governments.

Transcript

00:00 So, they've agreed to put an extra billion dollars into the Territory school system.

00:05 They're some of the most underfunded schools in Australia.

00:08 At the moment, they only receive about 80 per cent of what the Gonski review found they

00:12 needed to meet minimum requirements.

00:15 So the Territory and the Commonwealth governments are saying that this is an historic day, that

00:19 they're now going to be funded to that minimal level about 20 years earlier than they otherwise

00:24 would have been.

00:25 So I think they are right that it is a big day, but there are still a lot of questions

00:28 around the fact that many Territory students are so far behind.

00:33 Will getting them up to minimum standard really be enough to do things like changing the really

00:37 poor attendance rates?

00:39 We know something like two-thirds of Indigenous students in the Territory don't finish Year

00:43 12.

00:44 So there's a lot of challenges and a lot of catching up still to do, but overall this

00:48 is a good announcement and good news for the Territory.

00:51 I guess the next question is, Connor, is then what are the other states and Territory going

00:55 to ask for funding in their areas?

00:57 Yeah, absolutely.

00:58 So with the Territory, the Commonwealth share of the schools is now up to 40 per cent.

01:03 With the other states, the biggest states where it's more expensive, Victoria, New South

01:07 Wales, Queensland, the Commonwealth has been resisting going as high as 25 per cent, but

01:12 those states are holding out.

01:14 Those deals will have potentially billions rather than one billion, so five or six billion

01:18 say of extra new spending involved.

01:21 So they are going to be a lot more controversial and if the Commonwealth is going to make that

01:25 spend I think they're going to demand more from the states in terms of control over syllabus

01:30 and curriculum and of course that will then play into local politics in all of those more

01:35 populous states as we come up to an election.

01:37 [BLANK_AUDIO]

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