Search Western Teacher by topic

The Australian Education Union (AEU) has placed an immediate ban on the implementation of the Better and Fairer Schools Agreement.

New analysis from Jim Stanford, Economist and Director at the Centre for Future Work at the Australia Institute, has highlighted the large economic, social, and fiscal benefits from funding public schools to 100 per cent of the Schooling Resource Standard (SRS).

Contrary to claims by the Cook and Albanese governments, the bilateral agreement signed by the state and Commonwealth governments this month will still leave public school students in Western Australia underfunded and not fully funded as claimed.

Public schools in Western Australia educate proportionally more than twice the number of students from low socio-educational advantage backgrounds, compared to private schools and 2.7 times the number of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students.

The Australian Education Union (AEU) has urged the nation’s education ministers to make real progress on public school funding, with new research revealing the urgent need for the additional investment to lift results and combat debilitating teacher shortages and declining student and teacher wellbeing.

The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development’s (OECD) 2022 Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) results reveal Australia has one of the most unequal school systems in the OECD and that inequality is increasing.

The Australian Education Union has called on all governments to commit to ending the underfunding of public schools as a matter of urgency saying the future of the teaching profession is at stake along with the quality of education delivered across the nation.

The State School Teachers’ Union of WA has described last month’s funding announcement for public schools as a very positive first step.