A quarter of NSW schools are now classified as “high concentration disadvantaged”, alarming new data shows.
An analysis presented by Former state and Commonwealth education department head Michele Bruniges at the NSW Teachers Federation annual conference earlier this month found that Local Schools, Local Decisions devolved major financial and staffing decisions from the NSW Department of Education to individual schools, “untethered to student need”.
The data shows 9% of NSW students now attend high concentration disadvantaged schools – nearly double the proportion since 2017 – with NSW over-represented nationally among high-disadvantage schools.
NSW Teachers Federation president, Henry Rajendra, says policy has created “a two-tier education system where disadvantaged students are denied the support they need”.
“Every day we delay dismantling Local Schools, Local Decisions is another day millions in funding flows through a system that is failing students and burning out teachers,” Rajendra said in a statement.
“We’re seeing teachers and principals handling a threefold increase in students with disabilities while grappling with 1950s-era support systems.”
The NSW Teachers Federation is now calling for the complete dismantling of Local Schools, Local Decisions and its replacement with “a centralised response focused forensically on the needs of all students including those from disadvantaged communities.”
The motion demands immediate conversion of flexible funding into permanent staffing entitlements, centralised allocation based on student need, additional support for schools with high concentrations of disadvantaged students, two hours additional release time per week for all teachers, and systematic reduction in class sizes.
‘A new model is creating a SSP within an existing school’
Disability advocate Dr David Roy, who is a lecturer in Education at the University of Newcastle, says while public school systems have “beautifully packaged plans for equity and excellence”, the real-world experience for families in schools is that it depends on the leadership of individual schools as to how children are supported.
“An empathetic, understanding Principal makes the difference,” Dr Roy told The Educator.
“There are some great schools that see all children as valued and of being stretched, but there are still too many instances of children with a disability being left as an afterthought or being not seen as deemed worthy of being stretched and recognised in their capabilities.”
Dr Roy said this is also true for Schools for Specific Purpose (SSP) which can be “excellent or at times a dumping ground” where children are not educationally stretched.
“There is of course great practice also happening in the independent and Catholic systems, where they have recognised a community need to support children with a disability,” he said.
“A new model is creating a SSP within an existing school. This allows students with a disability to be part of the wider mainstream school, participating in mainstream school events and sharing many mainstream school classes.”
The irony, says Dr Roy, is that for many of the low-cost independent schools to gain funding to support children, they need to create a new SSP rather than have a fully inclusive mainstream school.
“The funding model set up by repeated governments forces the expansion of a segregated system,” he said.
“Concerns remain as to what happened in some segregated settings, as just with Early Childhood Centres, those children who are most vulnerable and lack communication skills are the most in danger of maltreatment.”
Dr Roy said that given the horrific revelations from for-profit Early learning Centres, the call for CCTV in the classroom has returned.
“We want both our children to be safe, but also our staff safe from false allegations. CCTV is one tool that can support this.”