The Education Department's quick response to last week's tragic death of a Sydney school girl highlights the strength of the public school system, the NSW government says.
An eight-year-old girl died on Friday after a tree branch fell on her in her primary school playground in Sydney's northwest at lunchtime.
NSW Education Minister Adrian Piccoli on Wednesday referred to the incident when stressing the importance of maintaining a public school model in the state.
"It's powerful to be part of a system and the incident last week in Pitt Town Public School is an example of the strength of a system," he told reporters in Sydney.
"We were able to bring resources and support to where a tragic incident occurred. That's the power of a system."
A spokesman for the minister later explained the minister was referring to the resources available to the Education Department which allowed it to support the school in the aftermath of the girl's death.
Being part of a public system gives schools the ability to provide "ongoing resources and support to assist the school in a difficult time", the spokesman said.
"On Monday morning, every teacher had a back-up teacher (available)," he said.
"If they needed to go and see a counsellor, again, that was made available by the department."
Mr Piccoli's comments were in response to questions about a federal plan to make more public schools independent.
The Abbott government has put $70 million on the desk to help 1500 state schools become independent public schools within the next three years.
But Mr Piccoli says his state has already moved to give greater power to school principals on how they spend school money.
"We're not planning on going further down the road of autonomy," said.
"I think we've landed somewhere pretty good (in the state)."
