New England NAPLAN results proof

The annual test tracks the reading, writing and numeracy levels of students in years three, five, seven and nine. The latest round of results, 2014 to 2016, are the first to cover an entire period backed by the needs-based Gonski funding.

Before the funding kicked in, the 2011 to 2013 reading level of Hillvue Public School Year 3 students was a band two – now they’re reading at a band three level.

The school’s Year 5 students have also jumped up a band in both numeracy and writing, from a band four to a band five. During that time the school received more than $730,000, and is slated to get another $350,000 this year. New England has received the second highest amount of funding in NSW ($20.8m), only behind neighbouring Parkes ($29.6m).

However, 2017 will be the last year of the needs-based funding scheme, with the Coalition government refusing to commit to the remaining two years of the program despite promising to in the 2013 election. 

The NSW Teachers Federation (NSWTF) said Hillvue was not an isolated case – Peel High School ($772,000) Year 9 students jumped a band in both reading and numeracy. At Werris Creek Public School ($234,837), 80 per cent of Year 5 students  surpassed the expected growth from their year-three test results.

NSWTF organiser Tim Danaher said the Gonski funding ramped up each year and had a greater back-end impact, which meant New England schools would miss out on $28m if the last two years remain unfunded.

“The improvements we’re seeing are only from two years of funding, imagine the results we can get if that funding continues to flow into schools,” Mr Danaher said.

“Education is the key to everything, and this plan is the key to the future plan of Australia.

“It’s about getting up to that minimum resources level, and if we don’t get those last two years then we don’t get anywhere near it.

“It’s an investment – in 20 years, if we fund this generation all the way through their education, it saves us money because there is less pressure on our health and welfare systems.”

However, Deputy Prime Minister Barnaby Joyce said improving the nation’s education standards was a complicated issue that wouldn’t be solved by simply throwing money at it. 

“The reality is, places such as Kazakhstan are going around us in certain key areas of study, and other countries that pay vastly less per student are getting vastly better results,” the New England MP said.

“So we’ve got to ask some deeper questions – we’ve answered the funding question, we’re putting more money to the funding of schools than any other government.

“If there is no Gonski, that doesn’t mean there’s no funding.”

Mr Joyce said if it was purely a matter of funding, the nation should be “twice as good as we were in 1988” because government spending per student had almost doubled.

Peel High School acting principal Patrick Sullivan said the extra funding had allowed his school to hire an extra teacher and create smaller class sizes for its Year 7. But the additional money wasn’t just benefiting the classroom – Mr Sullivan said the school had employed an apprenticeship coordinator and a job coach.

“We’ve got about 12 traineeships and apprenticeships this year in Year 11 and 12,” Mr Sullivan said.

“Our focus is to make sure every kid we get has a really strong future when they leave, and this funding allows us to support the kids in that.”