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The Minister for Education, Julia Gillard, today announced that around a quarter of all Australian schools (some 2,500) will participate in Smarter Schools National Partnerships.

The National Partnerships between the Federal Government and all state and territory governments will provide funding aimed at overcoming educational disadvantage associated with low socio-economic status, improving teacher quality and raising the literacy and numeracy standards of all children, particularly those at risk of falling behind.

The Australian Government has committed a total of $1.5 billion to the Low Socio-economic Status (SES) Schools National Partnership, $540 million to the National Partnership for Literacy and Numeracy and $550 million to the National Partnership for Improving Teacher Quality.

Each state and territory will receive funding from the Australian Government over the life of the three National Partnerships. Each state and territory government will co-invest funding into the partnerships.

The states and territories have also developed Implementation Plans outlining how they will allocate the funding to achieve improvements in the key areas of literacy and numeracy, educational disadvantage and teacher quality.

As a result of the opening of the My School website last month, an additional $11 million will be provided to 110 struggling schools to help them ensure their students improve their literacy and numeracy.

The 110 schools were selected based on results that were below or substantially below both the national average recorded on the My School website and those for statistically similar schools in all areas on the NAPLAN national tests.

More information is at: www.deewr.gov.au/Schooling/Programs/SmarterSchools.

Total Smarter Schools National Partnerships Funding

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