The days of ACT school autonomy and independence are over as a review highlights how the lack of a cohesive public school system has led to inequity and an inability to cater to student needs.
A review into public school resourcing was commissioned by the government after 77 out of 92 schools were expected to be over budget in July 2025. This increased to 80 schools by the end of the year.
The report finds schools are trying to respond to increased student needs, especially for students with disabilities or when English is their second language, but funding for these students has not increased at the same rate.
Each school is in charge of more administration and regulatory tasks, such as operating preschools, yearly maintenance or procuring education platforms which would be more efficient if run by the directorate, the report said.
While on paper the directorate says schools are fully staffed, on the ground teachers are not where they are needed most, the report said. Existing processes to move teachers between schools are not trusted.
Often schools facing the most challenging behaviours or lower socio-economic disadvantage are unable to attract staff.
New teachers at these schools have less mentorship and leadership support - because executives are redeployed into classrooms to cover absences.
More staff are taking leave after COVID-19 lockdowns but budgets for teaching relief have not changed to keep up with the trend. Instead the budget is based on pre-lockdown averages.
Complex student behaviour has been viewed from a work health and safety perspective which the panel said was concerning because it could label students as violent rather than responding to the "root environmental causes of their behaviour".
Learning support assistants can be assigned to students who have been deemed a high or extreme occupational violence risk.
"The system is often relying on its least-qualified staff to support its most complex students ... evidence suggests the use of school assistants is not the most effective primary strategy," the report said.
More learning support assistants have been made permanent and were then anchored to schools regardless of student movements, the report said.
First Nations students have been let down by the system, the report said their needs had not been adequately met and community voices had fewer avenues to be heard after a previous advisory group stopped operating.
The report recommends the ACT public school system should operate more as one system, where the directorate's central office offers more support and is accountable to schools as well as the government.
Education Minister Yvette Berry said this was "generational change" which would take a long time.
As part of the upcoming 2026-27 budget, the government will spend $9.3 million over four years to reform the school system.
First the government will spend $500,000 for a feasibility study to consider options for improved finance and HR system.
Currently schools and the directorate are using different accounting software which is causing tasks to be duplicated.
The report said the directorate's internal data systems are regarded as unreliable and some principals use their own enrolment projections because they do not trust the government's are accurate.
Over the next year $900,000 will be spent on updating the strategic asset management plan and developing a new school modernisation pipeline to improve ageing school infrastructure.
Then over two years, the government will spend $2.033 million to update funding models, $1.97 million on increasing human resources, $1.124 million on principal support and $800,000 on organisational design work.
Some of this funding will include using external consultant Nous Group to review the way the education directorate operates.
Nous Group's consultancy work was behind some of the changes made to the Australian National University as part of large-scale staff redundancies.
Ms Berry said Nous Group was not looking for savings in the education directorate.
"They went through a competitive process ... there were a number of consultants," she said.
"Nous came through as being the most appropriate."
The government is re-establishing Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander governance arrangements after an advisory group stopped operating. This will cost $2 million over four years.
Ms Berry said there was a big job ahead to make system-wide changes to the school system.
She said without the review highlighting the reasons why the system needed to change, it would be difficult to justify the "most significant reform the ACT public school system will have seen in 50 years".
"This is not a change overnight, it's huge, and it will take many years," she said.
She said they will need to build trust and bring the community along with them.
"We will find people on this journey who will be unhappy with this change, but I think a whole lot more we like it and see that it's important to be the best possible public education system that it can be."
