The Hon Julie Bishop MP - Minister for Education, Science and Training, and Minister Assisting the Prime Minister for Women's Issues

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Media Release

More support for regional and remote non-government schools

8 May 2007

BUDB 27/07

Students in more than 400 regional and remote non-government schools will be supported to achieve better educational outcomes through $121.1 million in funding over four years, the Minister for Education, Science and Training, the Hon Julie Bishop MP, announced today.

This funding will be provided in recognition of the higher cost of delivering schooling in regional and remote regions in Australia, and the negative impact that this can have on student achievement levels.

"Student achievement against the national literacy and numeracy benchmarks shows that students in non-metropolitan areas of Australia achieve well below the level of their peers in metropolitan regions," Minister Bishop said.

"By providing additional funding to these schools, it will provide them with the means to afford greater support to their most educationally disadvantaged students."

The funding comes in the form of a loading linked to general recurrent funding provided by the Australian Government. The loading will be provided to schools classified under the Accessibility/Remoteness Index of Australia (ARIA) classification which classifies areas as "Moderately Accessible", "Remote" and "Very Remote". Eligible non-government schools will receive an additional 5 percent, 10 percent and 20 percent of their SES entitlement respectively.

The next schools funding agreement will require state and territory governments to provide an equivalent increase in funding for regional and remote government schools from 2009.

"It is time that all governments recognised that regional communities face unique hardships and need assistance through the provision of funding where it is most needed," Minister Bishop said.

Funding over the period 2007-08 to 2010-11 will total $121 million and will allow schools to direct expenditure to those areas which most seriously affect their capacity to offer a quality education. For instance, the funding could be directed to attract quality teachers or increase staff retention, used to extend ICT facilities or improve teacher access to professional development.

"The Australian Government will continue to invest in young Australians in regional and remote areas to ensure we reinforce and strengthen the educational outcomes we want for all students," Minister Bishop said.

Media Contacts

Minister Bishop’s Office: Tory Vidler 0414 228 727

Dept of Education, Science & Training: Virginia Cook 0412 971 323

Non-media queries:
1300 363 079

Supporting Information

Why is this important?

A loading provided to non-government regional and remote schools recognises the high cost of delivering schooling in regional and remote Australia.

Funding will go towards improving the educational facilities and opportunities for students in these regions.

Additional funding for these schools will assist in ensuring they can direct resources where most needed to assist their most educationally disadvantaged students.

Who will benefit?

Approximately 400 non-government schools and their students will directly benefit from this additional funding.

Through the 2009-12 quadrennium funding arrangements the Australian Government will require state and territory governments to match this increase in resourcing for regional and remote schools government schools.

What funding is the Government committing to the initiative?

$121.1 over the four years 2007-08 to 2010-11 will be provided by the Australian Government. This will be provided in addition to the current general recurrent grants programme funding and be provided as a differential funding increase in resourcing based on degrees of remoteness.

The next schools funding agreement will require state and territory governments to provide an equivalent increase in funding for regional and remote government schools from 2009.

What have we done in the past?

This funding will be in addition to and provided as part of the usual General Recurrent Grants (GRG) Programme funds provided to non-government schools.

GRG funding assists schools with the recurrent costs of school education so that they can offer students educational programmes directed towards the achievement of the Australian Government’s priorities for schooling.

When will the initiative conclude?

The initiative will be ongoing with additional funding available from 1 January 2008.