NT government to roll our sweeping changes to education sector
The territory government has unveiled a major overhaul of the NT education system, scrapping middle school and attendance-based funding. But the devil is in the detail, something the government does not seem to have much of when it comes to the roll out of the sweeping changes.
Transcript
00:00 A new vision for education and a promise to one day phase out middle schools in the Northern
00:08 Territory.
00:09 We'll see those schools turned into comprehensive schools, so instead of just being middle schools
00:14 they'll move to a comprehensive model.
00:15 Some of the concerns for us is that the transition from middle to secondary means that some students
00:20 don't go on to senior secondary.
00:22 A long awaited review of secondary education, recommending sweeping changes to the NT's
00:28 current school system and more options for remote students to complete high school in
00:33 the Territory.
00:34 Having a boarding facility at Nullumboy, boarding facilities at Catherine, then we'll have Tennant
00:39 Creek.
00:40 And a concession that the NT's controversial funding model based on attendance rather than
00:45 enrolment was leaving students worse off.
00:48 Have our schools been disadvantaged?
00:51 My answer is yes, they have been.
00:53 The NT Education Department's review of secondary education delivered 15 recommendations, including
00:59 more support for learning on country programs and additional resourcing in classrooms.
01:04 But while the government's plans are ambitious, one major problem isn't going away, a critical
01:09 shortage of teachers.
01:11 We have an education system that is really hurting.
01:15 We have burnt out teachers, we have a teacher shortage, really crisis right now.
01:21 The union supports the government's vision, but without confirmation of federal funding,
01:26 there's no concrete timeline on when the reforms will be delivered.
01:31 We're really not going to see many timelines being agreed to by the department on anything
01:37 that costs money until that bilateral agreement process has finalised.
01:41 Big changes that won't come cheap.
01:44 [BLANK_AUDIO]