Education Funding

Mr GARDNER (Morialta) (14:29): Supplementary, sir: in relation to the $67.5 million that the minister announced the direction of yesterday, will that money be going to schools directly and, if so, in what way will the government be directing the nature of its use by principals? Or will the relevant new staff be attached to head office instead?

The Hon. S.E. CLOSE (Port Adelaide—Minister for Education and Child Development, Minister for Higher Education and Skills) (14:29): I am so grateful for what could have always amounted to a government question—$67.5 million. I am glad you asked. What we will be doing is analysing the data partly from NAPLAN because we might as well make use of this diagnostic test in a diagnostic way for the individual students.

We will be using that data and will be using the data that is captured from within the schools to identify those two categories of students that I just referred to briefly at the end of my previous answer—but it is possible that members of the opposition did not hear me because they were too busy talking—one category being the students who are not meeting the minimum standards and the other category being students who are not making sufficient progress based on their previous indicated capacity through previous results.

What we will do is identify where the funding will go, to which schools, for which students. The money will go to the schools. The money will go to primary schools in the public system. How that money is spent will be guided by experts, by people who actually know about education, not by the cheap commentators who like to get on and just slam our schools and say they are doing a terrible job, worst in the nation, which is not true—is not true. We will have an independent panel of experts who will be able to help guide which interventions are effective, which style of pedagogy, what approach, but the money will be spent by and in our schools.