Regional education boost promised by NSW National Party in 'Our Vision for Regional Communities' election pitch

NSW National Party leaders unveiled the new 'Our Vision' platform on Tuesday, with education listed as one of four key 'pillars' for the future of regional communities.

The document has faced some criticism for lacking substance, but a handful of concrete policies were announced at the launch.

"I think what we'll see in 10 years is even more vibrant regional communities," state Education Minister Sarah Mitchell told the CWD.

"If we get the early years right, we'll see much better improvements in terms of student outcomes ... not just their education and academic outcomes, but social, emotional, and wellbeing."

Two key challenges to regional education are identified: Staff shortages and below-average learning outcomes.

The government says this will require a multi-pronged response; By improving healthcare and communities teachers will be more inclined to work in regional centres, and vice versa.

Many schools across the Central West are facing severe teacher shortages.

Dubbo College Delroy campus has been named one of the hardest schools to staff in NSW. It had no teachers for more than 1400 periods during the first term of this year.

Mitchell says her ministry is working to attract teachers from metropolitan areas to the regions, retain existing staff, and incentive new people to take up the profession.

Polices flagged to ease there constraints including a 'Grow Your Own' campaign to identify and guide students considering a career in teaching, and the introduction of new financial incentive to encourage learning support officers to upskill as full-time teachers.

"I think that's really important because it's so much easier for us to work with people who already live in our community," Mitchell said.

"There's fantastic talent in places like Orange, so how do we find people who live in Orange already who might want to consider a career in teaching?"

A trial of eight 'Welcome Experience' hubs was also announced. These will provide information and support to essential workers - including teachers - who choose to relocate to a regional centre.

Education outcomes are lagging in regional centres, with the latest NAPLAN results revealing some students have fallen below national minimum standards.

In areas classified as Inner Regional - including Orange - students in Year 3 and 9 fell below the National Minimum Standard in grammar, punctuation, and spelling. Students in Year 7 scored below standard in numeracy.

Mitchell said this is a more complex problem, and will be corrected by improving access to teachers, facilities, and funding.

A Rural Access Gap program was flagged as one direct effort made by the government to combat the problem, by improving internet access and providing technology for regional schools.

A suite of policies for early education have also been announced, including universal pre-kindergarten, health and development checks, and potentially employee retention packages.

This will be covered in depth in a separate story.

"Orange in a great place to live. It's not to far from Sydney, I think it's wonderful for people who might be leaving the city to the bush to make that first step out," Mitchell said.

"We've got a lot of department works out there, we've got heaps of jobs, amazing culture, hospitality.

"It's a vibrant buzzing regional community and I think it is a really good place for people to want to live and work and I think we're seeing that in terms of the traction of people moving out there.

"It's about making sure we deliver those good services, that we've got the staff that we need, and also that we listen to communities because what we need Orange ... might be different to what they need in Gunnedah where I live. It'll be different again in Broken Hill.

"Particularly this experience program ... we can really tailor to support what individual communities need by working with councils and local groups and I think that's important because it's not one size fits all.

"We've got to make sure we're providing support to communities. The issues will be different and the needs will be different in different towns."

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