ACT Education Minister Yvette Berry says more details will come on literacy and numeracy reforms as the $24.9 million spend in the next ACT budget attracted criticism from teachers and advocates.
Ms Berry said the package was only the beginning of the reforms to the public school education system, known as Strong Foundations, that will aim to bring consistent, evidence-based teaching to every classroom.
"We're beginning with this initial $24.9 million. There will be more announcements to come in this space as we continue through the implementation plan and work with our schools," Ms Berry said.
She said she was mindful of the current critical shortage of teachers and that the initiatives shouldn't increase workloads for staff and school leaders.
"What this program is intended to do is free up unnecessary work in our schools, teachers can spend the time in the classroom delivering a great education," she said.
Ms Berry said some primary schools had volunteered to pilot a year 1 phonics check that will eventually be rolled out to all schools.
Opposition Leader Elizabeth Lee said the full details should be available before the ACT election in October.
"This minister must take full responsibility for letting down a whole generation of Canberra students," Ms Lee said.
"Even now in responding to the recommendations from the expert panel we are short on details and we know that funding that's been included is going go nowhere near full implementation."
Australian Education Union ACT branch president Angela Burroughs said the funding was "a down payment on hope" but much more funding would be needed to fully implement the expert panel's report into literacy and numeracy.
"It will be a game-changer if it's implemented properly," Ms Burroughs said.
"That goodwill that the minister observes will quickly evaporate if staff do not experience real change soon."
The ACT Alliance for Evidence Based Education welcomed the $24.9 million commitment over four years, but said more funding would be needed.
Alliance co-founder Jessica Del Rio said it seemed staff wages hadn't been accounted for as part of significant investment into professional development and coaching for teachers.
"Accessing professional development cannot come at the cost of workload intensification for teachers and this needs to be appropriately budgeted for," Ms Del Rio said.
Ms Del Rio said it was disappointing there was no funding for SPELD, a centre offering support for children with learning difficulties and dyslexia.
