A pandemic-era tutoring program that cost Victorian taxpayers $1.2 billion has been deemed to have not significantly improved students’ learning.
The state's Auditor-General’s Office tabled a report in parliament on Wednesday detailing the scheme's lack of effectiveness.
"Many schools' tutoring practises in 2023 were not fully effective," the audit found.
"The initiative did not significantly improve students’ learning compared to similar non-tutored students.
"When this happened, schools' tutoring was not well targeted and not well enough connected to students' classroom learning and their particular learning needs."
The report also found that enough was not done by the Department of Education to implement the program.
This often left schools responsible for its execution and resulted in the tutoring not being aligned with classroom learning.
Then-education minister James Merlino introduced the program in May 2021 under the leadership of former premier Daniel Andrews.
At the time, Victorian students had been using remote learning for more than a year on-and-off due to the state's multiple COVID lockdowns.
Mr Merlino said when the program was announced that it was the “most critical thing” the government was doing in schools that year.
Opposition education spokeswoman Jess Wilson said the program failed thousands of Victorian students.
“It simply defies belief that students have nothing to show for Labor’s $1.2 billion tutor learning initiative – with the auditor-general finding that students who received tutoring learnt less than those who did not receive tutoring," she said.
More than 1500 government schools and 600 low-fee schools have participated in the initiative each year since its inception.
The audit found students who received tutoring last year compared to 2022 did not show greater learning gains than those who did not.
“When we compared similar students from each group, we found that students who received tutoring learnt less than those who did not receive tutoring," the report stated.
A Victorian government spokesperson said it accepted the recommendations and would look to improve the program's effectiveness.
"This was a program designed to get kids re-engaged with learning after they disengaged throughout the pandemic," they said.
"We know for some schools and students this program has helped - with many principals reporting the positive impact of tutoring on students’ learning and engagement."
An additional $485m was announced in September to extend the program until the end of 2025.
This brought the total funding to more than $1.2 billion over five years.
