By Lucy Carroll
The NSW government has for months kept secret key performance targets for the state’s schools, despite releasing a major plan to transform public education at the end of 2023.
Leaked internal documents reveal the NSW Education Department developed 21 school system targets almost a year ago, including goals for lifting enrolment share and parent satisfaction with state schools.
Community confidence in public education sits at 51 per cent, while just 63 per cent of parents would recommend their child’s high school to others, the files reveal.
Documents dated from April last year include 21 public education system targets developed by the education department.Credit: Dominic Lorrimer
Until now, the government has held off making any targets available to parents or the public and has stripped them from its annual reports, despite releasing its four-year blueprint for public education 16 months ago.
After questions from the Herald on Sunday, the department released a suite of targets for NSW public schools, including goals for lifting enrolments, staff numbers, attendance and academic results.
This masthead sought the targets under freedom of information laws last year but was told this month that much of the material requested would be knocked back due to being “cabinet in confidence”.
Leaked files dated early April last year include 21 public education system targets, or “success measures”. Some were marked as endorsed by the department’s executive more than a year ago.
One slide shows community confidence in public education was at 51 per cent in 2023, with a target to lift that to 53 per cent by 2027.
“Monthly data suggests community confidence has remained relatively stable since the department commenced this measure in 2022,” the document says.
About 63 per cent of high school parents said they would recommend their child’s high school in 2023, falling from 70 per cent two years before, internal files show.
The data on parents’ recommendations was taken from the department’s Tell Them From Me surveys, which capture the view of parents and students in the public system.
Those surveys – which have run for more than a decade – have been axed from this year.
Documents show the department aims to lift the overall proportion of parents recommending their child’s public school from 73 per cent to 78 per cent by 2027.
“Meeting this measure equates to parents of an extra 43,000 public school students who would recommend their child’s school to others,” it said.
The files also show a target of lifting public system enrolment share to 65.3 per cent by 2034, up from 62.9 per cent in 2023. Hitting that target would mean an extra 33,000 students in the public system.
The exodus of families from public schools to private education has accelerated since the pandemic and defied cost-of-living pressures for parents. “Public education is the cornerstone of a fair society. It is the key to our ongoing economic success,” the document says.
Documents show the department also has a target of reversing the drop in primary to high school public sector enrolment share to 10.5 per cent by 2034, from a current 12.6 per cent.
“Enrolment share typically shows the largest drop between year 6 and 7 as students transition to secondary school. One in four students leaves the government sector at this point,” the document says.
A separate tranche of internal documents shows the NSW Education Department failed to meet 20 out of 24 targets in its previous strategic plan for 2018 to 2023.
“Under the previous plan, we didn’t achieve the change needed for successful delivery. We only met 4 of 24 targets,” one department document says.
The department, which runs one of the world’s largest public school systems, has a $27 billion budget, about 95,000 teachers and almost 800,000 students.
On Monday, the department released some key performance targets to the public, including lifting the attendance rate from 87.8 per cent in 2023 to 88.8 per cent in 2027.
It also aims to increase the proportion of students attaining year 12 from 70.5 per cent in 2022 to 74 per cent in 2027 and to increase NAPLAN scores, which would equate to reducing the number of year 5 students in the lowest band by 2400 pupils.
Internal documents show the department failed to meet 20 out of 24 targets in its 2018-2023 strategic plan.Credit: Dominic Lorrimer
In 2023, the department released its four-year strategic plan for NSW public education. It included six “focus areas” of evidence-based teaching; lifting academic results and student wellbeing; increasing preschool enrolments; strengthening respect for teachers; and boosting the number of school-leavers going to university, training or work. No measurable goals were included in that plan.
The department removed achievement targets from its annual reporting last year, marking the first time in 20 years that no quantifiable academic or attendance targets were included.
NSW Education Minister Prue Car said: “We were elected with a commitment to rebuild public education in NSW by fixing a broken system and lifting outcomes.
“No longer will targets be focused simply on the top-achieving students. These ambitious measures will help lift outcomes for all students across the state.”
The NSW government has said its 2023-2027 plan was in “stark contrast to the former Liberal government’s top-down corporate approach to education”.
Internal files from August say 21 targets were developed to “track progress in delivering on these within the life of the plan. Final data and policy consultation occurred through December 2023 and January 2024”.
Top two band HSC and NAPLAN performance targets, introduced under the former state government, were axed by the department last year. Instead, principals have the power to nominate their own reading and numeracy improvement measures.
NSW Education Department secretary Murat Dizdar has said previous top band targets excluded many students and focused on a narrow band of high-performers.
Centre for Independent Studies education research fellow Trisha Jha said system education targets should be clear and specific and should focus mainly on student achievement.
“At a minimum, progress should be reported through annual reports. Some metrics, such as attendance, could be reported per term via a live dashboard,” she said.
Jha said the Victorian Department of Education’s annual report includes targets for attendance, NAPLAN achievement, the retention rate to year 12 and parent satisfaction with government schools.
Opposition education spokeswoman Sarah Mitchell said while the introduction of “any new targets is a start, the Labor government still has a long way to go when it comes to being transparent and accountable for improved student outcomes.
“At the moment, parents and families are being left in the dark.”