Education will receive $18.5 billion in the NSW budget for 2019-20, with the state government calling it a “record investment”. 

Premier Gladys Berejiklian, Treasurer Dominic Perrottet and NSW Education Minster Sarah Mitchell said on Monday that the funding is $1.2 billion more than the previous year and forms part of government efforts to deliver a “world class” education system. 

The budget includes, over four years, $6.7 billion to deliver 190 new and upgraded schools, $120 million to expand before and after school care, $20 million to build, renovate and extend preschool facilities, and $500 million to assist non-government schools with facility construction. Another $88.4 million will go towards hiring a full-time psychologist and social worker in every government high school. 

“Not only is this Budget focused on continuing to deliver our record school infrastructure program and hiring new teachers – it also recognises the importance of mental health to student outcomes, as well as the crucial role that quality teachers play in educating our children,” Ms Mitchell said in a statement.

Ms Mitchell said the budget will also fund an education trial, under which year one students in NSW will have the option of sitting a phonics screening test from next year. 

Public schools will be able to opt-in for the standardised testing of students’ ability to link letters to sounds, which mirrors a model successfully trialled in South Australia. 

“We know that there is a relationship between how children learn to read and identifying the sounds of letters and we think it’s worth investing in,” Ms Mitchell told reporters in Sydney. 

The government also announced it will partner with Foodbank to provide free breakfasts to 500 schools in lower socio-economic areas. 

"Unfortunately we do hear stories of children coming to school, maybe without full tummies and not being prepared for the learning they need to engage in,” Ms Michell said.