Education advocates are welcoming the "long overdue" scrapping of a policy that funded Northern Territory schools based on attendance rather than enrolment numbers, and say the switch to a new model needs to happen faster.
Education Minister Eva Lawler yesterday announced the end of the effective enrolment funding model, which allocated funding to schools based on attendance rates rather than the number of remote students.
An ABC investigation last month revealed the model led to some remote schools recieving funding for less than half of their enrolled student population.
Only 66 of the 173 students enrolled at Lajamanu school in the Central Desert region were funded last year because of a decline in attendance.
Current and former teachers said the system disadvantaged schools that needed the most support to re-engage students.
Former remote teacher and Australian Education Union NT branch president Michelle Ayres said the decision to scrap the model spells the "end to a dark chapter in education for the Territory".
"This review confirms what teachers and principals have been saying for years — the kids with the lowest attendance are the most difficult to reach and require more resources, not fewer," she said.
"[Effective enrolment] has forced our public schools into inescapable downward spirals, to the point where our educational system is now on life support.
"Our attendance rates have plummeted, our literacy and numeracy levels are lower than at the turn of the century, and we face a severe teacher shortage."
According to the Deloitte Access Economics report the number of effective enrolments in a school did not align with the school's resourcing needs, because students with higher needs were "strongly linked" with low attendance.
It also found there was limited evidence that the funding model encouraged attendance, but rather, was perceived as "a punitive mechanism targeted at socio-economic factors that are often seen as outside of schools' control".
The government agreed to implement all ten of the report's recommendations, which included:
- Transition to a funding model based on enrolment without attendance components
- Redesign the minimum funding floor for schools
- Develop and implement supports that help schools to manage budgets over time
East Arnhem Land independent Yolngu man, Yinigya Guyula, said he had been "asking questions" about the policy since entering NT parliament in 2016.
"I am grateful for all the work that has been done to expose this unfair and racist approach to school funding that has so badly impacted our communities," he said.
When asked if she admits that the effective enrolment discriminated against some of the most disadvantaged schools in the NT, Ms Lawler said: "Absolutely not".
"Funding for schools is complex. We know [the funding is] probably never seen as enough money, schools will always want more money around that," she said.
"Probably in ten years time we'll have people complaining about [the model that replaces effective enrolment] as well."
Switch to new model could take up to five years
Dr John Guenther is a researcher at the Batchelor Institute of Indigenous Tertiary Education, and has spent about 15 years researching remote and Indigenous education.
He said the decision to scrap effective enrolment was "long overdue".
"I think that the recommendations are the right recommendations," he said.
He said the decision will help boost school attendance among First Nations students especially in remote communities.
"The lack of attendance in remote schools is a complicated issue. And this will help because it will enable schools to apply resources to schools where they most need it, and to communities where it's most needed," Dr Guenther said.
The report outlined a timeline for the implementation of its recommendations, with the full transition into a funding model based on enrolment "without attendance components" set to take place in between two and five years.
For Ms Ayres, this isn't soon enough.
"This is a problem that we've had in the Northern Territory for years," she said.
"Every moment that we don't, every day that we don't have a change to this has an exponential effect on a child's life."
Dr Guenther said he didn't understand why the transition would need to take that long.
"I know that there would need to be a lot of background work that has to be done in order to prepare for this, but I can't understand why it would need to take two years, let alone five years to implement," he said.
NT students still 'most underfunded' in the country by need
The NT currently receives highest level of federal funding per student in the country.
But it also has the country's biggest funding shortfall on what the 2012 Goneski review found was the minimum amount required based on their need, according to Deloitte's report.
"Territory students are the most underfunded in the country in terms of need," Ms Ayres said.
"This shortfall in 2020 was $6,000 per student according to the national needs-based formula, the School Resourcing Standard."
Ms Lawler said yesterday she hoped the report would provide evidence of the NT's need for more education funding when the bilateral funding agreement between the NT and federal governments is re-negotiated next year.
"It's important for us then to be able to have this information to work with the federal government around how our needs are unique or how our needs are different in our schools compared to other schools," Ms Lawler said.
"We've got an education ministers meeting in Perth next week, I'll be making sure that [federal Education Minister] Jason Clare has a copy of this report."
In a statement issued in October, Mr Clare said he was "committed to working with the states and territories to get every school to 100 per cent of its fair funding level".
