NSW must act on Gonski reforms: unions

AROUND 60 parents, teachers and principals have gathered in Sydney to pressure the NSW government to act on the recommendations of the Gonski review.

The action is part of the Australian Education Union's (AEU) national campaign, involving television and newspaper advertising and sponsored green-coloured Gonski buses which are running in western Sydney, the Central Coast and Brisbane.

The AEU wants the states and the commonwealth to agree on a funding model for the Gonski reforms before the next Council of Australian Governments (COAG) meeting in April.

"We're calling on the state government and Premier Barry O'Farrell to put politics aside and start negotiating for funding reform," AEU president Angelo Gavrielatos told reporters in Sydney on Sunday.

"Let the negotiations commence against a backdrop of commitment to invest, which thus far has been lacking from Barry O'Farrell.

Federal Minister for School Education, Peter Garrett, joined the rally in Sydney, to back calls for an urgent deal.

"We have had slow negotiations with the states around identifying those details of a national plan for school improvement," Mr Garrett told reporters.

"We need to see states coming to the table to deliver and commit," he said.

Mr Garrett said the federal government is also prepared to allocate additional funding for education to the states, as long as they commit to the funding model for the Gonski reforms.

"If we don't successfully negotiate, Australian students around the country will be worse off."

The Gonski review outlined a new model for funding schools and set an ambitious goal of increasing spending on education by about $6.5 billion.

Victoria and Western Australia say the plan lacks details, which is a threat to achieving education reforms.

NSW Education Minister Adrian Piccoli says his state remains strongly in favour of Gonski but he is furious the Commonwealth and unions have politicised the issue.

"The Commonwealth is obviously intent on turning school funding into a political football during an election year," Mr Piccoli said in a statement on Sunday.

He said Mr Garrett had no additional details to share when he called education ministers to Sydney on February 1, to discuss Gonski.

Mr Piccoli said the federal government had been stalling on the issue for over a year and it was time the states were given more details on the funding arrangements.

"Minister Garrett should spend more time working on an offer and less time staging bogus political stunts," he said.

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