Election 2025: cuts to TAFE funding and more school chaplains

A day out from the federal election, the Coalition has finally revealed its education policy – with free TAFE abolished but more spending on school chaplains and children with autism.

The Coalition has pledged to fast track teacher training and support explicit instruction methods in its education policy for the federal election.

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Cuts to TAFE funding, spending on school chaplains and fast-tracked training for new teachers are spelled out in the Coalition’s education policy.

A Dutton government will make trainee teachers, nurses and social workers repay their “prac payments’’ of $315 per week during mandatory on-the-job training, in a cost-cutting measure to save taxpayers $556m over three years.

The popular prac payments were legislated by the Albanese government, to start from July this year, to help university students struggling with the high cost of living when they are required to work for free in schools and hospitals as part of their degree.

Under Labor, the prac payments do not have to be repaid - but the Coalition will add the payments to student loans through the Higher Education Loan Program, to be repaid once graduates earn more than the average wage. The move is designed to ease administration difficulties for universities.

Another $1bn would be saved by the Coalition cancelling Labor’s plans to slash HECS debts by 20 per cent.

Labor’s fee-free TAFE would also be abolished – saving $1bn – although the Coalition has pledged to spend $261m to build a dozen new technical colleges and pour $505m into apprentice subsidies, in education costings released on Thursday.

School chaplains appear to be a policy priority, with the Coalition budgeting to pour $42.6m more into the National School Chaplaincy Program over the next three years in a policy harking back to time of John Howard’s leadership.

The extra spending would go to religious chaplains, rather than independent counsellors or psychologists.

The Coalition released its education policy late on Thursday, revealing its plan to “combat classroom disruption’’.

Students and teachers would be surveyed about behaviour in schools to “understand the frequency and impact of classroom disruption’’, and students would be taught how to behave through a “behaviour curriculum’’.

Coalition education spokeswoman Sarah Henderson. Picture: Luis Enrique Ascui

It would save $23m over four years by not proceeding with a New Australian Tertiary Education Commission, which Labor has planned to set up in June if it retains office.

The Coalition would raise $3bn by increasing the non-refundable application fee for international student visas from $1650 to $2500, or $5000 for applicants to the Group of Eight elite universities. This would be offset by the loss of $389m in visa revenue by cutting international student numbers by 80,000 a year.

A Coalition government would spend $5.2m for a judicial inquiry into anti-Semitism at universities, and $19.2m to develop a National Higher Education Code to prevent and respond to anti-Semitism. And 600 community language schools, which teach Australian students other languages, have been promised $25.2m in extra funding.

School teachers would be upskilled and provided with lesson plans through an “explicit teaching accelerator fund’’ to cost $21.4m.

“Evidence shows that children learn best when they are taught explicitly,’’ the policy states.