New NT government supports $1bn school funding deal

The first parliamentary sittings since the CLP won government in August have been dominated by measures to combat crime, but the bilateral education deal received backing.

Students from Ludmilla Primary School in Darwin walk to school. Picture: Pema Tamang Pakhrin

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The Northern Territory Country Liberal Party government has announced it will support the $1bn Better Fairer Schools Agreement struck by the NT Labor and federal governments in July.

The first parliamentary sittings since the CLP won government in August have been dominated by measures to combat crime, but on Wednesday a motion was passed to uphold the bilateral education deal, which will see NT schools receive a $738m federal funding injection over the next five years, alongside an extra $350m from the NT.

Education Minister Jo Hersey said NT schools would see their first funding increases for the start of the next school year.

“They’ve already received their budgets for … 2025, which gives them better flexibility and better planning to be able to do what they need to do in their school, depending on where that school is,” she said.

Ms Hersey also confirmed the controversial attendance-based school funding model, introduced by a CLP government in 2013, would be dropped and from 2025 funding would be allocated to schools according to enrolment.

“This levels the playing field and is a more equitable funding model,” she said.

Last year, The Australian’s NT Schools in Crisis series revealed that NT schools were the most underfunded in the country, with an estimated annual shortfall of $214.8m, leaving at least one in five students effectively unfunded.

The series reported that the attendance-based funding model disproportionately affected Indigenous students living in remote areas, where attendance in some communities was as low as 20 per cent, and that the NT’s NAPLAN results were the worst in the country, with 85 per cent of Indigenous students falling below minimum literacy and numeracy standards.

“We absolutely will not be doing what the previous government did, and let down our students with poor literacy, poor numeracy and poor attendance at schools,” Ms Hersey said.

Education also dominated question time on Wednesday, with the CLP government criticised for plans to reintroduce truancy officers and enforce punitive measures, such as cutting Centrelink payments, for parents whose children failed to attend school.

“Make no mistake, our focus is on attendance,” Chief Minister Lia Finocchiaro said.

“It’s on holding parents responsible for those who deliberately deprive their kids of an education, which is their opportunity to have a future.”

Opposition Leader Selina Uibo told the parliament that using truancy officers to police school attendance had failed in the past.

“It was ethically problematic, and it was expensive for Territory taxpayers, and it also potentially caused harm to our youngest and most vulnerable Territorians, their families or their carers,” Ms Uibo said.

Bilingual education came under the microscope, with Member for Mulka Yingiya ‘‘Mark’’ Guyula suggesting removal of targeted bilingual funding was a new way to disadvantage remote ­students.

“I am concerned that the targeted funding for bilingual schools has now disappeared,” Mr Guyula said.

“This will likely impact smaller schools, who will see a small increase in funding based on enrolment, but at the same time lose funding, because the targeted funding for bilingual schools has disappeared.”