Australia announced US$ 310.3 billion school funding in a decade

Students’ performance has been deteriorating in mathematics, science and reading.

Australian government has announced a budgetary allocation of US$21.4 billion in this years' budget and US$ 310.3 billion budgetary provision for schools in the next decade.

"We are providing record funding for schools. A record $21.4b in this year's Budget, which is an extra 66 percent since we came to government. And we can pay for it without increasing taxes, unlike Labor. We will provide a record $310.3b over the next decade," said Mr. Dan Tehan, Federal Education Minister of Australia. The decision to increase the funding for schools came on the heels of result of the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) report on Tuesday in which the Australian students were found weaker in science, mathematics and reading than their international counterparts.

#Factcheck @AlboMP. We are providing record funding for schools. A record $21.4b in this year's Budget, which is an extra 66% since we came to government. And we can pay for it without increasing taxes, unlike Labor. We will provide a record $310.3b over the next decade.

— Dan Tehan (@DanTehanWannon) December 3, 2019

In the report, Australia was ranked 16th in reading, 29th in mathematics and 17th in science while Chinese provinces of Beijing, Shanghai, Jiangsu, Zhejiang topped in each category. The report concluded that the Australian students were three and half years behind in maths than their Chinese counterparts, three years in science and one and half years in reading. Since the results were out, the government agencies were facing all round criticism.

Leader of the Australian Labor Party Mr. Anthony Albanese blamed the poor results on 'six years of Liberal cuts and neglect'.

This is what six years of Liberal cuts and neglect looks like. https://t.co/7KEJOBICIJ

— Anthony Albanese (@AlboMP) December 3, 2019

PISA assessment were started in 2000 and Australia's students are witnessing decline in mathematics since 2003. The government and non-government schools both are funded by the federal and state governments in Australia. Presently, federal government provides majority funding for non-government schools while states provide majority funding for government schools. The share of the federal government in total public funding has increased from 72.5 per cent in 2006-07 for non-government schools to 75.1 per cent in 2015-16 and 8.8 per cent in 2006-07 to 13.8 per cent in 2015-16 for government schools.