Member for Murray and Minister for Education Adrian Piccoli made the announcement recently and said the money would be used where it was most required.

The needs-based funding, which has been implemented as part of the NSW government’s commitment to the Gonski agreement, aims to deliver funding to students in a “fair and transparent way”.

Mr Piccoli said schools in the Murray electorate would all up receive $16,057,290.

“This substantial ongoing investment in public education is fantastic news for our schools, and will further boost their efforts to deliver improved student results,” he said.

NSW was the first state to sign up to the Gonski agreement and has been distributing the extra funds through its Resource Allocation Model (RAM) as a result.

Under the funding agreement, Yanco Agricultural High School will receive $390,570, which is an increase of $148,248 when compared to last year.

Leeton High School is another big beneficiary and is set to have an extra $95,190, bringing its RAM total to $752,230.

“This needs-based funding can be used in a variety of ways, including employing speech pathologists or specialist teachers to target learning areas,” Mr Piccoli said.

Through the NSW Government’s Local Schools, Local Decisions reform, principals in all NSW public schools are able to make decisions on how to use these funds to improve student outcomes at their own discretion.

As a result of the funding and the Gonski agreement, schools have been able to improve the quality of teaching, provide more counsellors and allow more support for beginning teachers.

School allocations