Providing the best education for our children

NSW has the best education system in Australia when it comes to literacy and numeracy. We are committed to making sure our kids have the best start:

  • providing more information to parents and the community about school performance

  • training “Highly Accomplished Teachers” to teach in our most challenging schools

  • creating 4000 apprenticeships and 2000 cadetships over the next 4 years.

 

New schools, building projects and extra maintenance

Our government:

  • is working with the Rudd Government on Building the Education Revolution, having already completed 600 projects, with another 3,000 underway, supporting 15,000 jobs.

  • has opened 3 new schools in Western Sydney.

  • has delivered $150m for extra school maintenance projects.

 

National literacy and numeracy tests

In national literacy and numeracy testing, our year 3 and 5 children outperformed their peers in every other state.

 

Apprenticeships and training places

We will provide places for 4,000 new apprenticeships and 2,000 cadetships over four years.

 

School leaving age

We are committed to ensuring that all our students achieve, at a minimum, the Year 10 School Certificate by raising the school leaving age.

 

Teachers

We have created ‘Highly Accomplished Teacher’ positions – with higher pay to get our best teachers to the most challenging schools.

 

School performance

We have legislated to provide more information to parents about school performance.

 

Supporting students in need

We recognise the need for schools to play an important role in improving the lives of children who are most disadvantaged. That is why we:

  • have provided $175m in new funding to schools in disadvantaged communities through the Low SES Schools National Partnership

  • have expanded the Best Start Kindergarten Assessment to all schools to focus on every child’s literacy and numeracy progress

  • have employed additional expert teachers to work with children with special needs in 265 schools.

  • will provide personalised tutoring for all Aboriginal children below the national minimum standard in literacy and numeracy starting this year.

  • will provide specialised training for teachers appointed to high Aboriginal enrolment schools starting this year.

  • have created four bilingual primary schools to develop fluency in Asian languages from an early age.

 

Technology for schools

We have funded personal laptops for all high school teachers and, with the Rudd Government, have delivered laptops with industry standard software to all Year 9 students in NSW.

 

Apprentices and training places

We have achieved our goal of employing 1000 extra apprentices this year ahead of schedule – doubling the number of Government apprentices. With the Rudd Government, we are working to deliver 175,000 new training places for job seekers, school leavers and under-skilled workers.