PHOTOGRAPH: Marco Antonio Torres (via flickr)
On Wednesday, the NSW government announced a record $219 million funding investment to be spread over 2000 NSW schools next year, following the government’s recent signing of the Gonski agreement.
The multi-million dollar booster will see some schools gaining hundreds of thousands of additional funding, which will allow for schools to secure resources, such as: extra teachers or speech pathology services for students in need.
NSW Education Minister Adrian Piccoli told the Illawarra Mercury that, “the investment would allow schools to get beyond just supporting students to targeting teaching and learning.”
The additional money will be spread to schools within the Illawarra as well, including: Warrawong High School, Warilla High School, Keira High School and Wollongong Public School.
Across the Illawarra’s four state electorates, Warrawong High School was at the top of the total preliminary 2017 RAM funding list, and will receive $1.8 million – including existing RAM cash from 2016, and any additional money that had previously been provided under the Gonski agreement.
According to the Illawarra Mercury, Warrawong High’s 2017 allocation has only increased $35, 000, despite their high RAM funding ranking. Warilla High School gained the largest 2016 to 2017 funding increase ($445, 481), followed by Keira High School ($420, 756) and Oak Flats High School ($378, 737). The smallest funding increases went to Falls Creek ($1230), the Illawarra Hospital School ($7874) and Wollongong Public School ($8898).
Distribution of the funding is based under the Resource Allocation Model (RAM), which has information on student need to deliver resources. Deviations in funding are based on changes to a school’s student requirements and/or enrollments.
Parliamentary secretary for the Illawarra Gareth Ward told the Illawarra Mercury that the government being part of the Gonski agreement is a “proud product of public education”, that sees students put first.
The largest funding sum went to Shellharbour ($3.6m), followed by Keira ($2.5m), Kiama ($2.3m) and Wollongong ($1.9m).
