With the Northern Tablelands MP Adam Marshall calling for the full six-year funding of Gonski, and a federal plan to abandon the plan for a $1.2 billion investment in needs-based education, Gonski funding has shown positive outcomes in Inverell.
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Mr Marshall put out a call to the electorate schools in early October for feedback on their educational outcomes due to Gonski funding.
“As I travel around and visit schools in the electorate I constantly hear stories about how Gonski, only two years in, is already changing students’ education for the better, and how it is enabling extra support for disadvantaged students.
Support that would have been impossible prior to Gonski,” he said.
Executive of the NSW Secondary Principals’ Council Lindsay Paul said they support the full funding of Gonski to enable consistent and long-term delivery of educational programs over the course of a student’s learning career regardless if they are in public, private, Catholic or independent schools.
Gonski’s sector blind. It’s got to do with helping the kids.
- Executive of the NSW Secondary Principals’ Council Lindsay Paul
“Gonski’s sector blind. It’s got to do with helping the kids, wherever they are and you’ve got that resource standard, and you’re trying to get every school to be at that resource standard,” he said.
Mr Paul’s school, Inverell’s Macintyre High School, has seen marked improvements because of the three years initial funding received from Gonski.
Funding enabled delivery of the MultiLit literacy program and QuickSmart maths intervention program for students to push through their learning barriers, and its accompanying the staffing and training.
Mr Paul said outcomes they have achieved in one year against the program’s effect sizes, as structured by Professor of Education and Director of the Melbourne Education Research Institute John Hattie’s benchmark scale, have proved exceptional.
“The current federal government, when you’re talking about what you should be doing to improve student learning outcomes you’re looking to spend your money on things that have effect sizes greater than 0.8,” he said.
“(We’ve had) QuickSmart results or effect sizes of 1.5, in this last 12 months for us, for the kids that were in that program.”
The Coalition government has decided to not entirely abandon the Gonski model, with a budgetary allowance of $1.2 billion over 2018-20 for need-based education, though the allocation falls short of the $4.5 billion from Gonski money earmarked for 2018-19.