More work needs to be done before the federal government can commit a figure to overhauling school funding, Prime Minister Julia Gillard says.
However she says it is time to begin a national debate on school funding following the release of the Gonski report.
Under the recommendations of an expert panel led by businessman David Gonski, Australian governments would need to commit about an extra $5.4 billion a year, shared between public and private sectors, to lift student achievements.
When asked by reporters in Sydney on Tuesday if the government would commit to its share in funding, Ms Gillard said, "I think we've got to be very clear about where that figure (of $5.4 billion) came from".
"On the actual dollars, (the review panelists) say more work needs to be done because they were working on 2009 information and they weren't able to get a complete picture.
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"We need to do that nuts and bolts work now."
Ms Gillard says talks will begin immediately with education stakeholders, state governments and communities on the funding process.
"We are getting straight into it and we will be driving that intensively over the coming months.
"I don't think it is productive for us to be speculating about figures before we do all of this nuts and bolts works."
