What is happening to Indigenous education funding in 2009?

In 2008, the Indigenous Education (Targeted Assistance) Act 2000 was amended to enable the Commonwealth to continue to exercise public leadership and maintain support for the achievement of improved Indigenous education outcomes.  These legislative amendments provide for a continuation of funding (in the order of $12 million in 2009) to support eligible preschools to accelerate educational outcomes for Indigenous students under transitional funding arrangements pending consideration of longer term funding arrangements.

Supplementary Indigenous education funding for eligible preschools will continue in 2009 in a manner similar to that which occurred in the 2005 -2008 quadrennium. Some school systems and authorities, and independent schools, with preschool enrolments, will receive funding in 2009 under these transitional arrangements.

Programs that will continue to be funded in 2009 for preschool providers include:

• Supplementary Recurrent Assistance (SRA).  SRA is available for government and non-government providers that meet eligibility criteria and aims to accelerate the educational outcomes for Indigenous Australians beyond those which could reasonably be expected from mainstream and own source funding alone.
• Transitional Project Assistance equivalent funding under the National Indigenous English Literacy and Numeracy Strategy (TPA NIELNS) is available to small independent preschools with Indigenous students.
• Building Australia’s Indigenous Workforce (BAIW) which is available to non-government providers for converting CDEP positions into real jobs.

Regional, state and territory offices of DEEWR will continue to manage the administration of Indigenous education programs under 2009 transitional arrangements, in collaboration with the Office of Early Childhood Education and Childcare.

How much funding will Preschools get?

Funding entitlements for 2009 SRA will continue to be based on the enrolment data collected through the National Preschool Census. The annual Census counts students who are enrolled and attending preschool during the first week of August. Entitlements are indexed annually using the Wage Cost Index 1 (WCI1).

Non-Government providers that received TPA NIELNS funding in 2008, will continue to receive funding in 2009 under transitional arrangements.

TPA NIELNS entitlements are non-negotiable and indexed annually using the WCI1.  For further information about your TPA NIELNS entitlements please contact your local DEEWR office.

What about performance monitoring and reporting?

Preschool providers will be required to report on educational and financial accountability requirements under their new agreements.

Preschools should consider the educational achievements of 2005-2008 when setting targets. These targets should be both challenging and realistic, while working towards closing the gap between outcomes achieved by Indigenous and non-Indigenous children.

Can I still use the Preschool Profile?

Yes. The Preschool Profile is still an acceptable tool for use by preschool providers to assess literacy and numeracy readiness.

The Preschool Profile can be used by teachers to measure the literacy and numeracy awareness and understanding of Indigenous and non-Indigenous preschool children.

• The Preschool Profile ( PDF 465KB)
• The Preschool Profile booklet ( PDF 729KB)
  Enables teachers to understand and apply the Preschool Profile. It answers questions that teachers and parents might have, for example, what is the Preschool Profile, how do you use it and how does it relate to other developmental aspects of preschool children and the historical background

RTF versions of these documents are not available. Please contact the mychild information line on 13 36 84 if you have any questions regarding their content.