Wednesday, February 12, 2025

Commonwealth signs off on record investment in WA education

The Federal Government and WA Government have signed an updated school funding and reform agreement which will see the Commonwealth provide an additional 5% of the Schooling Resource Standard (SRS) to WA public schools.

The new agreement will lift the Commonwealth’s contribution from 20 to 25% of the SRS by 2034 – the largest ever investment in WA public schools by the Australian Government.

As part of the agreement, WA will remove the provision put in by the Morrison Government allowing the State to claim 4% of public school funding for indirect school costs such as capital depreciation and replace it with recurrent funding on eligible expenses, while also maintaining a share of at least 75% of the SRS for public schools.

“The Cook Labor Government is firmly committed to doing what is right for WA students, which is why we were the first State to sign the Better and Fairer Schools Agreement in September last year. This further agreement builds on that deal and provides hundreds of millions of dollars of additional Commonwealth funding to the State through to 2034,” said WA Premier, Roger Cook.

“This is fantastic news for Western Australian students and teaching staff, it will provide the essential funding needed to ensure students can keep up, catch up and finish school.

“In particular, students with complex needs will get more support, which is something that the Cook Government has been working on for many years.”

The Agreement signed today will be followed by an updated WA Bilateral Agreement, which will tie funding to reforms already being delivered in WA schools that will help students catch up, keep up, and finish school, such as: 

  • Year 1 phonics and early years numeracy checks to identify students in the early years of school who need additional help;
  • evidence-based teaching and targeted and intensive supports such as small-group or catch-up tutoring to help students who fall behind;
  • support for students to come to school ready to learn, such as greater wellbeing support for learning and engagement, including counsellors, school psychologists and health nurses;
  • trialling place-based approaches to delivering a full-service school model in at least four WA public schools from 2026 which includes community, health and social services support;
  • recruiting more co-ordinators to better support students with the most complex needs;
  • identifying opportunities to reduce workloads and better support teachers and school leaders through professional learning;
  • providing more support and pathways for people to transition to a teaching career in Western Australian public schools, with a focus on First Nations people, people with disability and those from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds.

In addition, the following national targets will be included: 

  • increasing the proportion of students leaving school with a Year 12 certificate by 7.5 percentage points (nationally) by 2030;
  • reducing the proportion of students in the NAPLAN ‘Needs Additional Support’ proficiency level for reading and numeracy nationally by 10%;
  • increasing the proportion of students in the ‘Strong’ and ‘Exceeding’ proficiency levels for reading and numeracy by 10% by 2030 and trend upwards for priority equity cohorts in the ‘Strong’ and ‘Exceeding’ proficiency levels nationally;
  • increasing the Student Attendance Rate, nationally, to 91.4% (2019 level) by 2030;
  • increasing the engagement rate (completed or still enrolled) of initial teacher education students by 10 percentage points to 69.7% by 2035.

“This investment is tied to real, practical reforms to help students catch up, keep up and finish school,” said Federal Education Minister, Jason Clare.

WA Education Minister, Tony Buti said the agreement was good news for Western Australia.

“Teachers, students and families across the State will benefit as a result of increased funding and increased support for mental health and preparing students for school.”

“I am delighted that Western Australia is one of the first jurisdictions to sign up to this new agreement,” said Mr Buti.

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