Australian Education Union NT branch president Jarvis Ryan disappointed with Federal Budget

AEU NT branch president Jarvis Ryan says the Budget, which includes $17.6 billion for schools, is disappointing

Australian Education Union NT president Jarvis Ryan has criticised the lack of detail in the Federal Budget. PICTURE: Helen Orr

THE Australian Education Union has given the Federal Budget a fail mark.

AEU NT branch president Jarvis Ryan said the Budget, which includes $17.6 billion for schools, was disappointing.

It contains a provision for a funding increase of $1.2 billion from 2018 to 2020, while Labor has committed to an extra $4.5 billion over two years.

Mr Ryan criticised the lack of detail in the Budget.

“The real problem is we can’t see how it’s going to breakdown state-by-state and we can’t see how it’s going to be split between public and private schools,” he said.

He slammed the Government’s plan to tie teacher salary to performance as “idiotic”.

“It’s a policy that’s fraught with problems. It’s disastrous,” he said. “We’re a collegial profession. When you try to isolate what a particular teacher does for a student, it becomes very, very difficult and it’s a highly divisive process. ”

An extra $10.5 million over four years will be channelled to reduce the prevalence of Foetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorders. Foundation for Alcohol Research and Education chief executive Michael Thorn said the funding was welcome but fell well short of what was needed to make a significant dent in the incidence of FASD.

Mr Thorn said the money would help FARE establish a clinical network to roll out a new diagnostic instrument.

But doing so would leave little of the shoestring budget to devote to prevention measures. “It’s about a third of what we’ve advocated for,” he said.

“In my view, there’s been a failure to recognise how important getting that prevention message out there is.”

Originally published as Australian Education Union NT branch president Jarvis Ryan disappointed with Federal Budget