Tuesday, 4 October 2016
LOCAL State MP Adam Marshall is continuing to push the Federal Government to honour its commitment to fund the full six years of the Gonski education reforms, asking all Northern Tablelands public school principals to give him evidence and feedback on the success of the additional funding.
Mr Marshall has been a passionate supporter of Gonski since its inception in NSW and the state government’s needs-based Resource Allocation Model (RAM).
He says he is keen to hear directly from principals about how Gonski has allowed them to introduce programs at their schools, provide additional teaching support, upskill staff and assist students to improve their education.
“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,” Mr Marshall said.
“And how it is enabling extra support for disadvantaged students – support that would have been impossible prior to Gonski.
“I have written to all principals asking for feedback and examples to help bolster the case for an education funding scheme that provides the resources where they are needed most.”
Mr Marshall said the education reforms had already seen an additional $8 million of recurrent funding provided to Northern Tablelands schools.
“The Gonski funding model provides more resources, a fairer and transparent distribution, higher standards and a better education for every child,” he said.
“This funding is not pigeon-holed like previous funding, it is able to be spent by the principal according to the needs of the students at each school.”
Mr Marshall said he’d continue to do everything he could to support more investment in education which provides more resources and better outcomes for local students and teachers across our region.
“As far as I’m concerned, the NSW Government signed an agreement with the Commonwealth worth more than $5 billion and I want to see it honoured se we can properly invest in our most valuable asset – our children,” he said.