Budget Remembers Education

The Budget made good on election promises made, with significant funding for schools, the teacher workforce and pro student mental health programs delivered.

More than $770 million has been made available for schools and that includes a Schools Upgrade Fund (worth $270m) and over $200 million to support the ‘Student Well-being Boost’ – funding for schools to improve student mental health and wellbeing.

Teacher numbers and hopefully quality will receive some support with The High Achieving Teachers Program receiving additional funding for bursaries to encourage new teachers to the profession. 

While the money has been welcomed by experts, the form of the initiatives it will be spent on needs to be clarified.

On the High Achieving Teachers Program Professor Leonie Rowan from Griffith University says, "Measures of 'quality candidates' need to sit alongside investments designed to make teaching a genuine option for diverse people"

"The question of 'high quality candidates' requires careful discussion.  Australia desperately needs a more diverse teaching workforce. Measures of 'quality candidates' need to sit alongside investments designed to make teaching a genuine option for diverse people.

"It is equally vital to ensure that we retain diverse people in the teaching profession and that we provide all future teachers with the skills and knowledge required to thrive in a complex and demanding social environment. We look forward to future conversations about teacher education that recognises the role that experienced teacher educators can play in preparing future teachers for diverse contexts.

Prof Rowan welcomes the government's promised investment in mental health initiatives for young people in school.

“These investments will be most successful where they are based upon research conducted by teachers and teacher educators which shows what does and what does not work for diverse learners in diverse contexts. 

"There can be no one-size-fits-all package dropped into schools. Interventions developed by even the most well-meaning people who are removed from the realities of a particular community do not work. Mental health initiatives need to be developed with all of the diverse stakeholders.

"Initiatives must be co-designed with members of our Indigenous communities, migrant communities, people from low socio-economic backgrounds, people with disabilities, and all people who are significantly at risk of educational alienation and failure - including our LGBTQIAP+ young people, kids from minoritised religions and those in rural and regional areas.”

Image by David Peterson