Australian Government Accountability

Yes, if your school receives funding from the Australian Government under the Australian Education Act 2013 (Cth).

Independent schools receive funding from the Commonwealth government, through the Department of Education, under the requirements of the Australian Education Act 2013 (Cth). In some cases, funding is provided to the school system authority.

The Australian Education Act 2013 (Cth) encompasses both financial and educational accountability.

The Australian Education Act 2013 is the principal legislation for the provision of Australian Government funding to government and non-government schools. The Act commenced on 1 January 2014 and was last amended on 23 June 2017 to give effect to the Quality Schools package.

All Australian governments developed the National School Reform Agreement that
came into effect from 1 January 2019. The National Agreement is a joint commitment between the Commonwealth, states and territories to lift student outcomes across Australian schools. The overarching aim of the National Agreement is that Australian schooling provides a high quality and equitable education for all students.

The eight national reforms:

• Enhancing the Australian Curriculum to support teacher assessment of
  student attainment and growth
• Opt-in online learning assessment tools to assist teachers
• Review senior secondary pathways into work, further education and
  training
• Review teacher workforce needs of the future
• Strengthening the initial teacher education accreditation system
• A national unique student identifier
• An independent national evidence institute to inform teacher practice,
  system improvement and policy development
• Improving national data quality, consistency and collection to improve
  the national evidence base and inform policy development

Under the Australian Education Act 2013 (Cth), a school commits to a number of initiatives and accountabilities. These include:

• Implementing the Australian Teacher Performance and Development Framework
• Providing staff with access to ongoing Professional Development consistent with the Australian Charter for the Professional Learning of Teachers and School Leaders
• Implementing the Australian Curriculum/Victorian Curriculum or an alternative curriculum formally approved by ACARA
• Participating fully in the National Assessment Program
• Providing School Census Data
• Providing School Performance Data (to ACARA)
• Completing an Annual Report and making it available publicly
• Providing to parents a minimum of two compliant student reports annually
• National reports on the outcome of schooling
• Ensuring the school complies with relevant disability discrimination laws of the Commonwealth and Victoria
• Financial reporting.

Schools will need to confirm that they have met these conditions of funding by completing an annual Compliance Certificate.

If a school or system authority does not fulfil a condition, the Minister may seek repayment of an amount or reduce other amounts payable to the school or system authority or delay making any further payment to the authority.

Peter Roberts
Director, School  Services
Ph. 03 9825 7211
peter.roberts@is.vic.edu.au

Kieren Noonan
Head of Innovation
Ph. 03 9825 7275
kieren.noonan@is.vic.edu.au