The Auditor-General, Margaret Crawford released a report today highlighting the impact of the growing student population on school infrastructure and the increasing cost of psychological injury workers' compensation claims in Education. The report also gives updates on an initiative designed to create new out of school hours care (OSHC) places and on the expected final cost and completion date for the Learning Management and Business Reform (LMBR) program.

Enrolments in quality early childhood education programs in New South Wales are increasing but are below the national benchmark, according to a report released today by the NSW Auditor-General, Margaret Crawford.

Ninety-five per cent of children should be enrolled in at least 600 hours in the year before school, but according to the latest NSW figures 77 per cent of children were enrolled in quality early childhood education programs. This 2015 figure is below the benchmark, but is a significant improvement on 2013 when 59 per cent were enrolled.

Parliamentary reference - Report number #271 - released 26 May 2016

The Department of Education is doing a reasonable job in managing how well students with disability transition to a new school and supporting teachers to improve these students’ educational outcomes, according to a report released today by the NSW Auditor-General, Margaret Crawford.

The level of support provided to students with disability can vary between schools. This is partly due to cultural resistance in some schools and teachers not always having the necessary skills to support children with disability.

Parliamentary reference - Report number #270 - released 12 May 2016

Special education programs so far have been able to support schools to accommodate these students and as a result, we have an inclusive education system. Our concern is that as the number of students with disabilities increases, pressure will be placed on both funding and the capacity of schools to provide quality services.

The Government’s special education initiative is a positive step towards addressing these problems. Nevertheless, other changes need to be made to improve services to meet the needs of individual students. For example, the department needs to develop a common assessment tool to capture the additional support needs of students with disabilities on enrolment and improve accountability for services and results after enrolment.

Parliamentary reference - Report number #158 - released 6 September 2006

Realisation of the Government’s objectives for integrating computers into the school environment is a major change that will take some time to achieve. The logistics of equipping schools with computers and making them operational have been approached energetically by the Department. Four years into the Computers in Schools Program, student and teacher access to computer hardware, software and the Internet is now substantially greater and teachers are now better placed to integrate computers into teaching and learning. But while much has been achieved there are significant challenges that still remain.

Parliamentary reference - Report number #73 - released 7 June 2000

The Audit Office is of the opinion that, whilst all universities have developed policies to manage POW and to protect IP rights, many of those polices are outdated and require urgent review. Many of them do not adequately protect the universities or provide adequate compensation for the use of their resources or their name. There also seems to be a lack of clarity for accountability to monitor and enforce the policy. Whilst greater attention seems to have been given to protect the intellectual property rights, which mainly arise as a consequence of research projects, there is a need to review and revisit those policies as well.

Parliamentary reference - Report number #71 - released 7 February 2000