SMH May 2026 by Cathie Warburton

Many students today don’t have the opportunity to create such memories because in every state and territory in Australia, there is currently no legal requirement for a school to have a library. This includes infant, primary and secondary schools. It’s hard to believe, but it’s true. Any requirements that do exist are policy-based and not enforceable. For example, the NSW Department of Education has a school library policy, but it is not mandated in law, nor is compliance-tracked or enforced as far as we are aware...

...Recent research paints a dire picture. For example, Dymocks Children’s Charities research found that large numbers of Queensland state schools had a $0 book budget and no librarians. Research by the Australian Council for Educational Research shows that students in schools with qualified teacher librarians achieve higher NAPLAN literacy outcomes and well-resourced, staffed libraries are linked to higher student achievement overall. The School Libraries in South Australia 2024 Census showed that only 15 per cent of all schools in the state now have a qualified teacher librarian, down from 23 per cent in 2019. We are going backwards, not forwards.

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