‘Crisis of fairness’: The worsening problem in NSW schools

One in four schools in NSW are now considered “high concentration disadvantaged” with research showing the crisis has worsened over recent years.

In NSW 727 schools fell into the “highly disadvantaged” category in 2023. Picture: Getty Images

NSW has a “crisis of fairness” in its public school system, an ex-Department of Education Secretary has claimed, with a higher concentration of educationally disadvantaged students per class than the national average.

Dr Michele Bruniges, who had headed both the NSW and federal education departments, will present evidence to the NSW Teachers Federation’s annual conference on Monday that one in four schools in NSW are now considered “high concentration disadvantaged”.

The classification means that at least half the school’s students have parents who are in the bottom quartile of the Australian population because of their incomes, level of education or Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander status.

But instead of improving, Dr Bruniges’ research has found the problem is worsening, with 727 schools falling into the “highly disadvantaged” category in 2023 - a 22 per cent jump on the 611 schools in 2017.

“Every sector is increasing in the number of schools in that category,” Dr Bruniges told The Daily Telegraph.

“It’s an underlying issue, but the lion’s share of that is falling on government schooling.”

The NSW Teachers Federation will use Dr Bruniges’ findings to call on the Minns government to roll back a $1.4 billion school funding policy, which they blame for the worsening crisis.

Pictured is Dr Michele Bruniges.

The union has opposed the Local Schools Local Decisions policy since it was introduced in 2012 to give schools greater autonomy in how they spend their money.

Nationally, the public system supports 94 per cent of high concentration disadvantaged schools, however in NSW the figure is even higher at 97 per cent.

Federation president Henry Rajendra argued the failed policy has created a two-tiered education system, and said the Minns government must dismantle it and return all school funding to the Department’s central bureaucracy as a priority.

Teachers Federation President Henry Rajendra. Picture: NewsWire / Nikki Short

“We need to ask, are we deadset serious about closing the achievement gap or not?” he said.

“Teachers are grappling with 1950s-era support systems … now is the right time to reorient this.”

A 2020 review of the Local Schools policy by the Department’s internal Centre for Education Statistics and Evaluation found “there has been no overall improvement on … student outcomes” since its introduction, and “finance data provides limited information on exactly how schools have spent funding … because they are not required to (record spending) by the department”.

Dr Bruniges, who said while there is no one-size-fits-all solution to such a “complex” issue, it does demand urgent attention as “a matter of fairness”.

“Somewhere along the line our national identity of a fair go for all has been eroded and become an illusion … (including) in our education system,” she said.

“This is a crisis for this country.”

Originally published as ‘Crisis of fairness’: The worsening problem in NSW schools