Gonski funding, set up in 2014, is designed to match school funding with the individual needs of students and ensure that every Australian child receives a high-quality education.

During a visit to the Northern Territory state capital Darwin, AEU federal president Correna Haythorpe said the area’s public schools, which are attended by three-quarters of students in the NT, are being subjected to funding cuts despite the state government being given $272m extra in Gonski funding for the next four years.

She said: “We need to ask ‘where has that money gone’? While the funding has been delivered by the federal government it has not imposed accountability, or any requirement for the NT government to direct the money based on student need.”

She added that students in the NT are not getting the smaller classes and support programmes that students in other parts of Australia receive and as a result NT students are falling behind, with big gaps in achievement.