THE Rudd government's Education Revolution has been dubbed the Administrative Revolution by a senior Catholic education official, after it was claimed independent schools in NSW were given $8 million to evaluate programs worth just $3m.

Non-government schools say education agreements between the commonwealth and the states designed to lift school performance have become bogged down by excessive amounts of paperwork and an onerous and expensive evaluation process.

The National Catholic Education Commission and the Independent Schools Council of Australia wrote to Education Minister Julia Gillard in December expressing their concerns about the overly bureaucratic demands of the National Partnership agreements.

The Council of Australian Governments established three main national partnerships in education worth about $2.5 billion to improve literacy and numeracy, teacher quality and the performance of schools in low-socio-economic areas.