Valuing regional education – an economic as well as social imperative

Professor the Hon. Adrian Piccoli

Saturday 21 October 2023

Sir Henry Parkes Memorial School of Arts, Tenterfield NSW

The biggest boost to regional economies won’t come from inland rail or higher grain prices – it will come from closing the education gap between rural and regional schools and metropolitan schools. What does that gap cost the Australian economy and what needs to be done to close it.

A former NSW MP and Minister for Education, Professor the Hon. Adrian Piccoli is currently a Senior Client Partner with Korn Ferry, leading their education practice in Australasia. Before joining Korn Ferry in 2021, Adrian was Director of UNSW’s Gonski Institute for Education, established in 2018 with a mission to address growing inequality in Australian education as well as improve access for students to high-quality education wherever they may live or go to school. He was made a Fellow of the Australian Council for Educational Leaders in 2017, and published his first book, 12 Ways Your Child Can Get the Best Out of School, in 2019. He lives in Griffith, NSW, with his wife Sonia and their two children.

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There is an unacceptably large difference in education attainment between people who live in rural and regional Australia compared to those who live in metropolitan centres. Reducing this difference is widely acknowledged as an education and social imperative rather than an economic one.

The typical government and private sector approach to improving economic growth in regional Australia is usually characterised by major investments from governments into regional infrastructure like roads, rail and hospitals. Whilst these investments are welcome there is a huge economic imperative and economic dividend to be gained by investing in improving the educational attainment of the almost one third of Australians who live outside cities.

Understanding the economic benefit of bridging this gap is a crucial for state, federal and local government when considering the impact of investing scarce resources into our most important assets in regional and remote Australia – our people.

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