Mr MILLS - 2006-10-18
Since June 2002, the Education Department staff numbers have increased by 128. Not all of these are frontline teachers. Spending in the area of education was $163m, or a 35% increase on 2002. The Education Department’s Annual Report reveals there has been no significant increase in student numbers and results are not any different from the results in 2002. Why have you let that $163m in education spending be wasted without any substantial improvement in academic results?
ANSWER
Mr Acting Speaker, I thank the member for Blain for his question. This government does not step away one inch from increasing resources for education for kids in the Northern Territory.
When we came to government in 2001, we inherited, right across government, in service delivery to health, education, police, law and order, agencies whose budgets had been run down, whose staff numbers had been depleted, and the outcomes that we were achieving across the Northern Territory in all of those areas were unacceptable.
This government committed to 100 extra teachers; in fact, from the numbers that I have, it is about 128 additional teachers in our classrooms across the Northern Territory, and those teachers are doing a fantastic job. We have made commitments that have seen class sizes reduce, so that will see a number of additional teachers in the system. You cannot put extra teachers on without having additional support staff. It is an area of the department where I continue to focus to ensure that as many of our resources as possible end up in the schools and not in the back office unless there is very good need.
As my colleague, the Treasurer, said yesterday, ministers are on notice for our agencies to come in on budget. There are a number of issues in regards to the annual report and the budget for DEET this year where quite a large amount of money came in late, right towards the end, from the Commonwealth that will be carried over into the next financial year.
However, all the time that our students in the Northern Territory are not meeting the national benchmarks, we are not at the national average, we will keep investing in education, and we will not be looking to cut agency budgets and sack public servants, particularly frontline public servants such as teachers, nurses and police.
ANSWER
Mr Acting Speaker, I thank the member for Blain for his question. This government does not step away one inch from increasing resources for education for kids in the Northern Territory.
When we came to government in 2001, we inherited, right across government, in service delivery to health, education, police, law and order, agencies whose budgets had been run down, whose staff numbers had been depleted, and the outcomes that we were achieving across the Northern Territory in all of those areas were unacceptable.
This government committed to 100 extra teachers; in fact, from the numbers that I have, it is about 128 additional teachers in our classrooms across the Northern Territory, and those teachers are doing a fantastic job. We have made commitments that have seen class sizes reduce, so that will see a number of additional teachers in the system. You cannot put extra teachers on without having additional support staff. It is an area of the department where I continue to focus to ensure that as many of our resources as possible end up in the schools and not in the back office unless there is very good need.
As my colleague, the Treasurer, said yesterday, ministers are on notice for our agencies to come in on budget. There are a number of issues in regards to the annual report and the budget for DEET this year where quite a large amount of money came in late, right towards the end, from the Commonwealth that will be carried over into the next financial year.
However, all the time that our students in the Northern Territory are not meeting the national benchmarks, we are not at the national average, we will keep investing in education, and we will not be looking to cut agency budgets and sack public servants, particularly frontline public servants such as teachers, nurses and police.
Last updated: 09 Aug 2016