Victoria has long prided itself on being “The Education State” – a boast that is printed on everything from car numberplates to official documents and promotional literature.
So it was no surprise that when the national NAPLAN results for 2025 showed Victorian students at top of the class, the state’s Deputy Premier and Minister for Education Ben Carroll was quick to repeat this claim.
Victorian students ranked first or second in 18 of 20 measures and significantly improving on the state’s 2024 results, and up to 70% fell within the ‘Strong’ or ‘Exceeding’ bands. Meanwhile, the state’s primary students ranked first or second in all 10 domains.
“Victoria is the Education State and our nation-leading NAPLAN results are the proof. Congratulations to all our dedicated students, teachers, principals, parents and carers on these outstanding results,” Minister Carroll said in a statement on Wednesday.
“Our investments are clearly paying off – delivering modern classrooms, great teachers and more individual support, helping make sure students have every opportunity to succeed.”
However, the Australian Education Union Victorian Branch says Minister Carroll’s claim that Victoria is the ‘education state’ is “nonsense”.
“There is no way Minister Carroll can call Victoria the ‘education state’ when his government has cut $2.4 billion in public school funding, and have overseen a system in which public school teachers work an average 12 unpaid overtime hours every week,” AEU Victorian Branch president Justin Mullaly said.
“You cannot say Victoria is the ‘education state’ when Victoria’s public schools are the lowest funded in the country, our teachers are the lowest paid and our principals and education support staff are also undervalued.”
Mullaly also pointed to the state’s teacher retention crisis, which shows just three in 10 public school staff intend to stay working in public schools until retirement.
“Almost 40 per cent of staff are uncertain about continuing to work in Victorian public schools,” he said. “And Victoria is not the ‘education state’ when there are chronic staffing shortages with more than 1000 vacancies in our schools each day on average in 2025.”
As of the time of making the statement, Mullaly pointed out that there were 1,198 positions advertised.
“In 2026, an experienced Victorian teacher will be paid $118,063 compared to $133,422 for a similarly experienced teacher in NSW,” he said. “At the graduate entry level, a Victorian teacher will be paid $79,589 compared to $92,882 in NSW.”
Mullaly said new classroom based education support staff are paid 10.5% less than their colleagues in NSW, with principals classified at range two almost 18% behind.
“Victoria will not be even close to being the ‘education state’ until the Allan Labor Government restores the $2.4 billion they cut from Victorian public schools, fixes the teacher shortage, and ensures public school teachers, assistant principals, principals, and education support staff have decent pay and conditions.”
The office of Minister Ben Carroll has been contacted for comment.