Importance of Education Funding

A brief description of the educational policy

Educational policies are important in ensuring that schools are running effectively. One of the key policies that can be applied to improve overall school performance is allocating the necessary resources to the school programs. Funding ensures that the schools’ projects are well implemented. The dynamic change and advancement in technology, require schools to embrace an outward approach by incorporating new teaching techniques that will best prepare the students for the job market. An equitable and increase in allocations dispersed to schools in the Australian Capital Territory district will ensure that the schools implement necessary programs to improve quality education standards.

Many of the students are not achieving the minimum national standards of education in the ACT. This is largely attributed to the inadequacy of the authorities to incorporate the importance of education in their mandates (Adams & Moon, 2013). Education funding has been largely ignored by the major political players. The authorities have no policies of addressing the disparity between the private and public schools (Chesters & Watson, 2013). Majority of students in public schools are not achieving the minimum numeracy and literacy levels. In 2016, over 25 percent of year 9 students did not achieve the required literacy standards. The affected students were mostly from low socio-economic status (Lin & Scherz, 2014). This has been largely attributed to the failure of the government in allocating enough resources to public schools to address education reforms. There is also the general undersupply of qualified teachers in fields like math, language, computing, geography, chemistry and physics teachers. Majority of the teachers lack the enthusiasm of the subjects they are teaching the students.

The outcome of education systems in the ACT has largely been based on the traditional model of economic gain. Therefore, there is the need to shift the focus to a more robust and accommodating educational angle (Hallinger & Chen, 2015). This funding policy aims at providing the guidelines for effective school funding by considering the complexity of educational processes, the difference in governance perspectives, the diversity of educational goals and the need to address educational reforms in the ACT region.

Public schools in the ACT region are at a disadvantage compared to the private schools. There has been a growing disparity between schools and these inequalities have been largely associated with socio economic backgrounds. Since school funding are developed from public budgets allocations, the need to establish mechanisms for the allocation of the funding amidst other competing priorities is a fundamental policy concern for the ACT government (Torrance, 2013). The government should strike a balance to ensure the public schools are well catered for in the budgetary allocations.

Disparities between Private and Public Schools

Teaching in Australia is being shunned by school leavers as a career. Some of the best performing countries in pedagogy have succeeded in making the profession acceptable in their country. In Hong Kong and Singapore for example, over 30 percent of school leavers opt for teaching. In these countries, the competition for entry into teaching schools is high. In Australia, the entry into teaching career has gradually declined over time. Most of those admitted into teaching courses have an Australian Tertiary Admission Rank (ATAR) of below 70(Keating, Savage & Polesel, 2013). Those with higher ATARs opt for other courses and shun away from the teaching profession. The resources allocation should address the need to raise the education standards. This should ensure the majority of the students acquire the minimum literacy standards. This is to be achieved through the review of the state’s educational curriculum and instituting measures to ensure education dispensation is fully maximized.

The dispensation of school funding in ACT involves various actors in raising, allocating and spending the funds. Majority of school funding originates from the National government. However, other players such as the state government of ACT contribute to raising the funds. Private and international funding of schools has also been on the rise in the ACT, complementing the national sources. The key stakeholders in this policy are the school governing boards, teachers, professional organizations, students and parental associations, the government and community organizations.

The study intends to answer the following research questions.

1.    What are the ways of increasing funding to public schools in ACT state?
2.    What are the roles of the stakeholders in facilitating funding of schools?
3.    What are some of the reforms that funding can implement in schools?

This essay will use the descriptive correlational survey as a tool for data analysis. This method is applied when a study focuses on finding new truth in present condition. A survey enables an individual to gain knowledge on natural phenomena and answer any question that may arise based on the relationships and distribution of people as they live in their natural settings (Keating, Savage & Polesel, 2013). The collection of data will be from a part of the population. To collect this information, purposive sampling was used. This sampling technique is efficient when one knows prior information of the respondent’s sample.

Since becoming a federation, schooling in Australia has been under state jurisdiction. The National government has its focus mainly on private institutions (Hogan, 2016). The states are responsible for regulation of both public and private schools and are required to fully operate the public schools. According to the survey, states are the major public funder of public schools with 65 percent. The Australian government is majority public funder of private schools with 35 percent. 

Qualified Teachers and Curriculum Review

(“How are schools funded in Australia? | Department of Education and Training”, 2018)

To address the issue of funding in public schools, the Australian central government should take a lead role in facilitating funding for public schools. The governmental should increase its allocation to boost the ACT government (Rudman, 2014). The education legislation should also be reformed to enable more budgetary allocation to schools in the ACT. Additionally, both local and international investors should be approached and encouraged to participate in education investments.

The stakeholders should take a lead role in ensuring the funding policy is implemented. The survey focused on parent’s association, community organization, government, and international education institutions, as the stakeholders of interest. The main role of the stakeholders in the policy is ensuring accountability of the funds designed for school improvements. The stakeholders can carry out due diligence to ensure the funds are used for the sole purpose they were intended for. The stakeholders can also lobby for funds from support groups and charity foundations to further implement policies for improving education in the ACT region.

The survey found some loopholes in the education system of the ACT state. To address this, the following reforms can be instituted in the state using the allocated resources. The state should increase the number of tutors to strike a balance between the student to teacher ratio (Kline, White & Lock, 2013). The tutors can effectively handle a smaller number of students and this can result in maximizing each student’s potential and consequently increasing the literacy level. The policy should also introduce a career-based curriculum that are in line with the on-going changes in the world (Luke, 2018). The curriculum should prepare the student for work in the 21^st century. Emphasis on the curriculum should be largely on understanding the topic and having the ability to apply what the student learns. The curriculum should encourage teamwork and the ability to communicate and solve problems. The student should also be able to think critically when faced with situations, be open to change, flexible, and willing to continually learn. This ensures that the students acquire skills that will help them in the job market. Proper school funding will also increase the intake of students to schools, especially from low-income status. This is achievable through the implementation of lower fees structures. The education funding policy should offer scholarships to students as a means of incentives to good performers or sport gifted students. This factor will ensure equality in the education system in the state of the ACT

Increasing Literacy Standards and Addressing Education Reforms

Analysis of education funding policy is important for both improvement and accountability purposes. It gives a wider picture as to what experience is given to the students with the available resources. The analysis also gives the account as to how resources are used, and whether they are employed for the intended purposes. It is also crucial for determining whether the effectiveness and efficiency of resources, by giving feedback as to whether the allocated resources have been used productively. Monitoring and analysis also facilitate an understanding of the ways through which the allocated resources are used at each level of the system, and the extent to which the resources reflect on the outcomes of the targeted group. This analysis results in potential solutions that may be implemented to curb the policy problem.

The effectiveness of the funding policy in ACT state is determined by the school funding architecture. This includes the governance, budgeting, and planning of the school, the school autonomy and decentralization as well as the mechanism for the distribution of resources. Effective resource allocation works when the school has robust means of ensuring the programs they implement to improve the education mandate (Gorur & Wu, 2015). To achieve this, the school management should be transparent in all levels of the system. There should be both internal and external system put in place in ACT state to ensure the purpose the funds are allocated for are achieved (Perry & Southwell, 2014). This may include; increasing the number of teachers, the introduction of better curriculums that will introduce the students to the working environment and building more public schools.

The impact assessment focuses on the recipient of the funding policy, the student. In analyzing the impact, the determinant is checking whether the numerical and grammatical illiteracy levels have declined in the state of ACT (Mayer, 2014). The funding policy should cater for the student by ensuring the reduction of tutoring fees in the schools, offering positive incentives for improved performance among the students and creating an accommodative learning environment by reducing the tutor to student ratio. This will ensure the teachers have a reduced workload and effectively cater to each student’s specific needs.

Sustainability in the education funding policy is important to consider, as the program should not negatively impact the progress of education in ACT state. The policy should be able to accommodate existing practices while providing the room for addressing the disparity raised in the education system.

Stakeholder Engagement for Accountability

Reporting as an analysis tool is important in emphasizing transparency, and reducing the risks of corruption. Reporting provide information to the stakeholders on the use and flow of the funding (Rowlands, 2013). It creates a condition that gives all the stakeholders a platform to participate in discussions and open forums on how the resources may be used (Dyllick, 2015). Such inclusivity facilitates the success of the projects to be implemented. Auditing, on the other hand, assesses the effectiveness and appropriateness on the use of the resources. Auditing involves both internal and external audits. It creates accountability in both the state and the school.

Conclusion.

The findings in the essay were discussed on the basis of the research questions.

It was found out in order to increase the funding? The central government should take an active role in promoting additional budget allocation to the local public schools. Additionally, there was a need to legislate new laws that protect the interest of the education system. Education investment should also be encouraged by the state government.

The main role of the stakeholders is policing the funding process by ensuring accountability and transparency (Purcal, Fisher & Laragy, 2014). Additionally, the stakeholders can lobby for funding from support groups and people of good will. The implication of this on the process is facilitating the success of the policy. Including the students in the decision making is important since they are the end beneficiaries of the policies. Their inclusion fosters the acceptability and feasibility of the policy. The students can identify existing gaps in the policies, define their needs and give suggestion for the appropriate interventions that can favor their needs.

The last research question was the reforms that can be implemented as a result of the school funding policy. The ACT state can consider amending the education system to be more career oriented in line with the changing dynamics of the work environment (Davis, Eickelmann & Zaka, 2013). They may also increase the number of teachers to reduce the workloads the tutors are currently facing. Offering rewards incentives can also encourage students to focus more on education. The limitation that countered the essay include; the findings of the essay are only limited to the ACT state and can therefore not generalize all the education system. Another limitation was that the study was only focusing on education funding as a policy of school improvement. There are many other policies that can result in school improvement but were not countered in the study. More study needs to be carried out on the education funding policy but the sample size to be increased to cover the whole of Australia. Addition research can also be carried out concerning other methods that may be used to increase the performance of schools in Australia.

Recommendations for Policy Reforms

References

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