The Independent Education Union (IEU) has called upon the State Government to “repair the damage” that the past two years of frozen funding has caused.
The IEU’s statement comes as NSW Education Minister, Adrian Piccoli, yesterday hailed the Baird Government for providing non-government schools with more than $3.8bn in funding since their election.
However, IEU general secretary, John Quessy, has attacked the claims, saying that the overall education budget had instead experienced massive cuts.
“The reality is that the NSW Liberal Government has actually slashed the overall education budget by over $1.7bn,” Quessy said.
“This is hardly the ‘proud record of supporting the non-government school sector’ the Minister claims: this funding freeze was effectively a funding cut.”
In 2012 Minister Piccoli announced he would cap per-capita funding for non-government schools, with the funds to the non-government sector frozen at $800m annually, saving the Government $116m through to 2016.
“The additional demands for teacher accreditation and development being placed on the profession by the NSW Government requires additional funding support for schools,” Quessy said.
“Will the Baird Government provide necessary funding and resourcing for the induction and mentoring of early career teachers in the non-government sector as it does in the government sector?
“A great deal of work needs to be done by the Government to repair the damage the past two years of frozen funding has caused.”