NEWS
Treasurer Jim Chalmers . Picture : NCA NewsWire .
Budget 2023
What ’ s in it for Aussie schools ?
By Eleanor Campbell
Indigenous education and teacher workforce reforms were headline priorities funnelled into this year ’ s federal budget .
In May , Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and Treasurer Jim Chalmers handed down Labor ’ s second federal spend since its election last year .
The government announced it will allocate $ 28b in total to Australian schools over the next two years , a figure expected to rise to $ 31.4b by 2026 / 27 .
Public school funding will increase by 5.7 per cent to $ 10.8b , with $ 17.4b set aside for private and Catholic schools over the next financial year .
The federal education department said it will be implementing new safeguards to “ strengthen policy and financial assurance and compliance oversight in the nongovernment sector .”
The government also announced it will spend an extra $ 9.3m on the National Teacher Workforce Action Plan on top of its $ 328m investment .
This includes an extra 1972 university places to train more primary and secondary school teachers .
An extra $ 4m will go towards developing guidelines to train and mentor early career teachers and new principals .
An additional $ 3m will go towards the new national curriculum , with $ 2.3m set aside to “ support its successful implementation ”
As part of its headline education spend , the government allocated $ 40.4m to lift attendance rates and improve academic outcomes in Central Australian schools .
According to the budget papers , this measure will prioritise community engagement and locally driven responses in partnerships with local community organisations .
An additional $ 10.9m will establish a regional scholarship program to cover boarding school fees for up to 200 disadvantaged families .
Funding to teach students about sexual consent and respectful relationships will total $ 20 million , with $ 6.7 million towards teaching First Nations languages in schools .
The government also earmarked $ 72.4m to build and train the early childcare workforce .
This includes $ 34.4m to support professional development opportunities for up to 75,000 early childhood educators . ■
Consent education campaigner Chanel Contos . Picture : Gaye Gerad / NCA NewsWire
Championing change
Experts to lead consent education overhaul .
By Eleanor Campbell
The federal government has unveiled the group of experts tasked to deliver its $ 83.5 million dollar consent education program .
The working group , announced Thursday , will conduct a “ rapid review ” into how sex education is being delivered in Australian schools .
Consent education became mandatory for all school children this year after state and federal ministers came to a unanimous agreement in 2022 .
Federal education minister Jason Clare said the group will work to ensure “ age-appropriate ” and “ evidenced-based ” curriculum content is delivered .
“ Teaching respectful relationships education in schools assists students build the skills , values and attitudes required to develop and maintain positive , healthy , and respectful relationships ,” he said .
Chief of the nation ’ s leading violence prevention organisation Our Watch Patty Kinnersly will chair the working group , who will guide collaboration between states , territories and the non-government schooling sectors .
Members also include Teach Us Consent founder and activist Chanel Contos . Ms Contos initiated a national discussion around sexual violence in 2021 after an Instagram post she created asking teenage girls to share their experiences of sexual assault went viral .
The post received more than 6,000 responses and launched a petition demanding that consent education be mandatory , which received over 50,000 signatures .
Ms Contos ’ organisation Teach Us Consent received $ 3.5m in this year ’ s federal budget to develop and distribute social media resources around sexual consent .
“ Teach Us Consent has always been about bringing the voices of youth to the desks of policy makers ,” the 25-year-old said in May .
“ The creation of a youth-led expert advisory group will take this aspect of our work to the next level .”
The government ’ s consent expert group will oversee the development of a national framework to assist schools to select providers to deliver consent education .
Other group members include educational and developmental psychologist and former federal MP Dr Fiona Martin , trauma and child sexual abuse researcher Dr Michael Salter , and Indigenous education leader Professor Peter Buckskin . ■
2 | educationreview . com . au