The government has revealed how it plans to fund changes to the Education Act, spending $57 million over four years on its implementation in the budget.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
In the next financial year, the government is set to spend almost $1.4 billion on education across the state.
Students First funding worth $134 million will continue to be funded for the full six years, despite federal changes to Gonski.
School infrastructure and student health and well-being will also be a focus for the next four years.
With most of the new Education Act scheduled to be rolled out in July this year, additional funds were allocated to its implementation.
Consultation around the changes to the school starting age have now finished and are due to be approved in Parliament by September.
About $24 million of the Education Act funds will be spent on student cohort changes caused by altering the leaving age and potentially the starting age.
From 2020, $18 million will be spent on capital funding to deal with the increased number of students.
Three million will be spent to refocus teaching from kindergarten to grade 2, and additional teachers will also be funded if the lowering the school starting age legislation passes Parliament.
The Disability Taskforce was also allocated $12 million over four years.
Almost eight additional full-time nurses will be funded, and $1.6 million will be spent on a Child and Student Well-being Strategy.
Queechy High will get an extra $2 million in infrastructure funding, Boat Harbour Primary will receive $1.8 million, and Spreyton Primary will get $1.7 million.
Independent and Catholic schools will also receive $6 million over four years for capital improvements.
Almost $7 million was announced for support staff, and $3.2 million for Drysdale.
Tasmanian Principals Association president Malcolm Elliott said he was happy to see funding for principal well-being, capital development, and student health.
“We were hoping for a four-year resource guarantee which would mean the people in schools know exactly what they would be planning with,” Mr Elliott said.
But Opposition finance spokesman Scott Bacon said there was “nothing to get excited about” in education.
“This first thing we'll be looking at is the funding for the government's reforms to the early start age and the Gonski funding,” he said.
