The State Government has guaranteed the impact of cuts to education funding will be limited to departmental bureaucrats.
The guarantee follows concerns raised by the Australian Education Union and the state Opposition that school resources will be hit as the department looks for $223 million in savings outlined in the recent State Budget.
“We are trying to spread the pain across the whole of the system,” department head Tony Harrison said this morning.
“What we will avoid though is touching the money that goes out to schools,” he told FIVEaa’s breakfast program.
“There will be no reduction of teachers whatsoever.”
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Education Minister Jennifer Rankine confirmed, however, there will be a review of support services outside the teaching area.
These included services provided for speech pathology, psychology services and disability assistance.
“It hasn’t been reviewed for 15 years,” she told ABC radio.
“So the department has been looking at the demand for those services.
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“At the moment we employ 286 people to support children with disadvantage or disability.
“No decision has been made about the level of services, but let me stress that we’ll be employing an additional 20 people and we’ll be making sure we can provide those services.”
Opposition education spokesman David Pisoni said the detail of the impact of cuts needed to be made clear.
“There’s $223 million worth of cuts and that equates to 387 staff,” he said.
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