NSW schools who received most COVID funding revealed | List

Find out how much cash your school is getting to hire tutors and help catch students up after COVID closures.

Students in southwest Sydney were the worst affected by the COVID lockdown as many lacked the technology required for remote schooling and their parents were unable to work from home.

Schools in the area have dominated a list of those qualifying for hundreds of thousands of dollars in funding to hire extra tutors to get their students back on track.

Cabramatta High School received $698,411 to hire 11 extra staff to help children who have slipped behind — the most cash given to any NSW public school to catch up students.

It was followed by Fairfield High School and Fairvale High School which both received just over $629,000 while Greenacre Public School received $585,574.

Students at schools in the city’s east were deemed the least in need of help, with Paddington and Double Bay public schools receiving less than $20k.

Demographer Simon Kuestenmacher said southwest Sydney school children were more likely to fall behind because of the large migrant population meant more parents were less likely to be able to work from home to supervise homeschooling.

Demographer Simon Kuestenmacher said parents around Cabramatta were less likely to be able to work from home. Picture: Supplied

“During the pandemic there were the well-paid knowledge workers who could work from home and manage the double burden of that and their kids schooling but other parents had to continue to work because their jobs couldn’t be done from home,” he said.

“This would traditionally be all those traditional labour or low skill level jobs that in Cabramatta we would expect to be clustered around there.”

Fairfield councillor Kien Ly said some students could not work from home because they had limited access to the internet.

“Compared to wealthy areas, some families don’t have the means to have access to a computer and the internet to be able to study from home,” he said.

Across the state, some children went backwards by the equivalent of four months of schoolwork, according to tests conducted when students returned to school.

So far 4000 current and former teachers have been employed as part of the tutoring scheme and 89 per cent of government schools have started sending children to tutors in school time.

Cabramatta High School received the highest amount of funding to catch children up after COVID. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Monique Harmer

Some current final year university students studying an education degree have also been employed.

Australian Tutoring Association president Mohan Dhall said while some tutors had a lot of experience, others were less proficient when it came to teaching.

“Some of the tutors which have been taken on need far better guidance. These are first and second year out of university teachers or they are in the casual pool....there are some people who are simply doing their best.”

University of Sydney education expert Dr Rachel Wilson said schools with the most disadvantaged children were mostly in regional and remote areas would struggle to attract the staff.

“The major issue jumping out in relation to the tutoring program is that of staffing which exists in those schools,” she said.

Fairvale High School received $629,000.

Centre for Independent Studies education researcher Glenn Fahey said students who fell most behind must be the ones sent to tutoring.

“We can obviously see a risk that the students who are a drain on the classroom teacher, not necessarily the children who have fallen behind, are the ones who are going to be sent to tutoring,” he said.

A Department of Education spokeswoman said schools had flexibility to choose which children received tutoring, which would be based on test results and end-of-year reports.

“Schools have flexibility in identifying students who will participate in the program and draw on a range of information,” she said.