Evaluation of the Establishment Grants Programme

The main objectives of the Establishment Grants Programme are to assist new non-government schools with costs incurred in the formative years, and to enable them to be more competitive with existing schools. This evaluation was to examine the eligibility and accountability requirements of the Programme, the transparency of Programme arrangements, and the administration of the payment of the grants. Four important indicators for consideration in assessing whether a new school is eligible for Establishment Grants funding were highlighted in the evaluation:

• schools must have State of Territory registration or recognition as a separate new school;
• the new school has not been physically in existence before (eg. new building);
• there must be a new cohort of students and new catchment area;
• school administration must be separate and autonomous, and have new teaching and financial administration.

Stakeholders consulted were satisfied with the transparency of decisions and funding arrangements although some indicated that they were not aware of the eligibility criteria used by DEST in assessing their applications. The survey and interviews with stakeholders provided very positive indicators in relation to the administration of the Programme.

Overall, findings indicate that the Programme has been running effectively and has made substantial progress towards achieving its objectives. Recommendations include: that the Programme be continued; that current accountability provisions remain; that DEST include a list of eligibility criteria in their information booklet; that DEST should consider publishing each year the names of schools that received grants in that year; and that DEST could explore in any future Establishment Grants funding policy proposals the merits of a socio-economic status-based approach to determine relative funding levels between schools.

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