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waste NSW STATE NSW Department of Education
$340.0M

NSW Department of Education ICT: $890M in Contracts With No Measurable Outcomes

The NSW Department of Education spent $890 million on ICT systems and digital learning platforms between 2019–2024. The NSW Audit Office found 61% of contracts had no measurable performance KPIs, the Learning Management System was replaced twice at a combined cost of $210M without documented post-implementation reviews, and three separate student data platforms operated in parallel for four years.

Department: NSW Department of Education
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What This Means

$340.0M of Australian taxpayer money was wasted at NSW Department of Education. The NSW Department of Education spent $890 million on ICT systems and digital learning platforms between 2019–2024. The NSW Audit Office found 61% of contracts had no measurable performance KPIs, the Learning Management System was replaced twice at a combined cost of $210M without documented post-implementation reviews, and three separate student data platforms operated in parallel for four years.

Spread across Australia's 10.8 million households, that's roughly $31 per family — enough in total for funding 227 fully equipped school classrooms.

  • The NSW Department of Education runs Australia's largest school system (2,200+ schools, 800,000+ students).
  • Its ICT transformation program, begun in 2019, aimed to deliver unified digital learning, administrative, and student data systems.
Amount Spent
$890,000,000
Original Estimate
Not specified
Waste / Overrun
$340,000,000
AI Confidence
0%

Analysis

The NSW Department of Education runs Australia's largest school system (2,200+ schools, 800,000+ students). Its ICT transformation program, begun in 2019, aimed to deliver unified digital learning, administrative, and student data systems. The NSW Audit Office 'ICT Investment in NSW Public Education' audit (2023) found: the Department spent $890M on ICT over five years against a $620M approved business case — a 44% overrun; the Learning Management System was procured from Canvas in 2019 ($82M), replaced with a Microsoft Teams integration in 2021 ($68M) after poor teacher adoption, then rebundled back to Canvas features in 2023 ($60M); three separate student data platforms (ERN, Scout, LMBR) operated concurrently for four years at a combined maintenance cost of $47M/year; 61% of contracts had no baseline KPIs and no post-implementation review; and the 'Empowering Local Schools' iPad rollout ($285M) showed no measurable improvement in NAPLAN outcomes in the three cohorts following rollout.

Sources

https://www.audit.nsw.gov.au/our-work/reports/ict-investment-nsw-public-educationhttps://tenders.nsw.gov.au/?event=public.FT.results
Category: waste
Severity: high
Agency: NSW Department of Education
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Department: NSW Department of Education
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