NT Education Minister Peter Chandler has accused the education union of focusing on money instead of student outcomes, as the union asks where $272 million of funding is being spent.

Australian Education Union Northern Territory branch president Jarvis Ryan told national union delegates in Melbourne on Saturday that the NT Government was not being transparent about how it was spending $272 million of federal education funding, because it never signed up to the Gonski agreement.

"The Territory has received a lot of money from the Commonwealth, but there were no strings attached to the money with no accountability requirements and as a result we can't see where that money has gone," Mr Ryan said.

But Mr Chandler dismissed the union's claims.

"I know exactly where the money's gone. It's gone into better results. This is where the union missed the point time and time again," Mr Chandler said.

"I can tell you where the money has gone, it's gone into improving results, not the rubbish ideas that Jarvis Ryan comes up with ... with his union mates.

"I'm sick to death of listening to the rhetoric coming from Jarvis Ryan and the union because they focus on money, they don't focus on outcomes," Mr Chandler said.

"If you think you can just keep throwing money at any idea whatsoever, without focusing on what's going on in classrooms, without focusing on educational outcomes ... they have lost the plot."

In 2013, five states and territories signed up to the Gonski federal funding agreement, except the Northern Territory, WA and Queensland.

But the Territory Government still received $272 million federal funds, without the ties of the funding agreement.

No accountability on spending, union says

Mr Ryan said the lack of an agreement was the problem, because there was no accountability.

Jarvis Ryan, Australian Education Union NT branch president, has criticised the NT Government over education funding. ( Supplied: AEU NT )

"So we still got the Gonski money, that money is in the NT. The problem is we can't see that in schools," he said.

"What should be happening with Gonski, is there should be a formula applied to allocate that school funding on a needs basis, which means schools would get that share of that money based on their student cohort.

"Instead the Northern Territory has been free to do as they wish with that money.

"In a state like NSW that has implemented the Gonski reform, they publish a list school by school of how much money they received. That school has to report how they used that money and how the extra resources have improved student learning."

Mr Ryan said the union was also concerned about what happens if the federal money dries up next year, without signing the Gonski agreement.

"As it stands, the Gonski agreement federally is only funded until next year. What we're seeking is to get a commitment to extend that through to 2019," Mr Ryan said.

"Bill Shorten and Labor Party have given that commitment. Malcolm Turnbull has not given that commitment."

But Mr Chandler said it had been beneficial to Territory students to not have the federal money tied to the agreement.

"Christopher Pyne gave me the same amount of money we would have got under Gonski," Mr Chandler said.

"But under Gonski, it was very much tied to their way of doing things, rather than the way we saw we could improve education in Northern Territory. And I guarantee you the way we were spending the money has improved results."