Labor will invest an additional $1.8 billion in regional and country classrooms as part of the Your Child. Our Future plan for Australian schools.
Under Labor’s plan to fund the Gonski reforms on-time and in-full, students outside our capital cities will have the same opportunities to learn the skills they need to succeed.
Labor’s new school funding for our regions will benefit 1.5 million students during 2018 and 2019.
This extra support will mean more individualised support and attention for regional students, better early literacy and numeracy programs and better professional development for our teachers.
Despite one in three Australians living outside our capital cities, there is a clear educational divide between the city and the country.
Across all tested year levels, students from regional and remote Australia score lower in NAPLAN.
More students in regional Australia also drop out of school, with year 12 retention rates significantly lower than in major cities.
Labor believes the future success of regional students and communities relies on a strong education system that will equip students in country schools with the skills they need to get the jobs of the future.
If Australia is to have a strong economic future, we need to make sure every student in regional and country Australia is prepared for high-skill, high-wage jobs.
Labor’s policy will ensure every child growing up outside our capital cities has the opportunity to achieve their full potential at school, and that the long-standing divide in educational achievement is closed.
Mr Turnbull’s decision to dump the Gonski reforms and rip $29 billion out of our schools will lock our children into the same old lottery of postcodes.
The Turnbull Government’s decision to fund a company tax cut for big business at the expense of better schools is a betrayal of regional Australia.
If Malcolm Turnbull and the Liberals are elected, students in regional Australia will continue to fall behind students in the city.
Regional Australia needs strong schools and investment – it doesn’t need Mr Turnbull’s cuts.
For more information on Labor’s plan to support regional and country students, visit www.laborsplanforeducation.com.au/country_students.
THURSDAY, 12 MAY 2016
