A controversial school funding model based on attendance rather than total enrolments will be scrapped in the Northern Territory, after an independent review found there was little evidence the scheme helped increase school attendance rates.
The "effective enrolment" model — which is not used in any other state or territory — has been operating since 2015, and applies to all public schools, with the exception of special schools for students with disability and distance education.
It accounts for 65 per cent of a school’s overall budget, and is calculated using the average of the previous year’s two highest weeks of attendance for each term.
But as attendance rates of some remote schools dropped below 50 per cent, the Australian Education Union and former teachers said plummeting attendance rates were sending schools into a "downward spiral" of funding cuts.
Today Education Minister Eva Lawler announced the release of the Deloitte review, which was commissioned last year.
She said the government accepted the 10 recommendations and findings of the report, including that "there is limited evidence that the effective enrolment methodology acts as an effective incentive or accountability mechanism to improve student attendance".
"In the territory, something like 27 per cent of our schools have less than 50 students attend, often it is very hard then if you're a principal in one of those small schools, to be then assured of the amount of money that you're going to get," she said.
According to the review, the methodology used by the department was perceived by schools and education peak bodies to be "a punitive mechanism targeted at socio-economic factors that are often seen as outside of schools' control".
The shift to an enrolment-based methodology will not come into force right away, with "effective enrolment" funding to remain in place in 2023.
But Ms Lawler said two of the review's recommendations would be "implemented immediately". These are to "redesign the minimum funding floor" for schools and to "explore the appropriateness of the funding methodology to small schools".
Remote schools hardest hit
Earlier this year, government data revealed some remote schools were receiving funding for less than half their enrolled students under the model.
Lajamanu school in the Central Desert region, for example, received funding for only 66 of its 173 enrolled students last year.
Maningrida school — servicing one of the largest remote towns in the territory — received funding for just 281 of its 481 enrolled students during the same period.
The revelation prompted criticism from the Australian Education Union, which said the scheme was treating First Nations students as a "budget saving" measure.
"This is in direct contravention of the rights of these children to their fundamental right to an education," the union’s NT president Michelle Ayres — who worked in a remote school in Central Australia until 2021 — said last month.
"Instead of providing additional funding to re-engage low attending students, the NT government has treated them as a budget saving."
The data was released following questions from independent MLA Yingiya Guyula, who described the funding model as "totally racist".
"The Aboriginal children have a lower attendance and so they are the kids and the communities that are missing out," he said.
Attendance dropping across the territory
Since 2013, attendance rates for year 7 students have declined everywhere in the Northern Territory.
In 2020-21, three remote schools saw attendance fall below 50 per cent and six schools fell below 40 per cent.
One school’s attendance for that year was 26 per cent.
A total of 64 Northern Territory schools saw an increase in their variable funding from 2021 to 2022, in line with marginal increases in their attendance rates.
However, the Deloitte review found that: “Funding variability, primarily driven by enrolment fluctuations, combined with a poor understanding of how effective enrolment works, leads to budget uncertainty for schools."
Former NT teacher of the year Daniel Yore, now a public health researcher, said decisions on how to allocate shrinking resources in remote schools have led to teacher burnout, as well as poor educational outcomes for some of the most disadvantaged students in the country.
“These are tragic decisions that have to be made," he said.
"[They] put huge pressure on our principals, and huge pressure on our teachers, but most importantly, territory kids are missing out on the education they deserve.
"And particularly students in some of the most challenging environments.”
