Education in Australia

New Education Reforms

The introduction of new regulations to teachers' staffing in public schools has been met with a wave of disagreement by teachers, beginning with a stop work on April 8, and continuing with a promised strike on May 22nd.

Khyiah Angel, relieving media officer in NSW Teachers Federation said that most of the 20,000 teachers who attended the stop-work early April have signed in favour of the stop-work and strike in May unless government returns to negotiations.

According to a Department of Education and Training spokesperson, the new staffing procedures are meant to increase teachers opportunities in applying for a range of positions and at the same time principals will have greater opportunities to select the best possible teacher for their school.

The new approach will allow school principals to choose their teachers according to the classes needs for teacher qualifications. This will be replacing the old system of priority staffing. In priority staffing, teachers moved up on a priority list through the Teachers Employment Priority Scheme.

Geoff Scott, President of NSW Primary Principals Association said that NSW department will remove some transfers while other transfers will remain. Of the transfers remaining are priority transfers such as displaced teachers where students of a class drop out and so the teacher doesn't have a class anymore and needs to be transferred. There are also transfers for teachers in incentive areas or hard to start areas and compassionate transfers where there is an illness situation.

There aren't many huge changes. The new system is trying to give any school a chance of balance to have a range of teachers to choose who to be appointed. Scott said.

According to the Department of Education and Training, the new system promises to provide qualified teacher in every class in every location.

However, the NSW Teachers Federation considers that many schools would be at a disadvantage.

Bob Lipscombe, NSW Teachers Federation Deputy President, says the changes will result in a situation where many schools will not be able to attract enough suitably qualified teachers. Schools in hard to staff, remote and isolated areas will not attract teachers as they have in the past because teachers, knowing that they will now have little prospect of transferring from them; will not apply in the first place.

Schools likely to be adversely affected include many in western Sydney and most country areas. Until now many teachers have applied for these schools because they knew that after three years they could apply for a transfer to other schools, according to Lipscombe.

The end of this term will determine the outcome of the dispute. According to Angel, the NSW Teachers Federation is seeking negotiations about the industrial agreement about staffing.  "At the moment the industrial agreement is enforceable but it expires at the end of this term and we are seeking a new industrial agreement or to extend the current one." She said.

The Primary Principals Association has been talking with both the NSW Teachers Federation and the NSW Department of Education. "We are keen on seeing the working parties and participate in them." Scott said.

Mary J

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