As you may have already heard, from the beginning of this term, we have introduced some changes to the way we staff public schools.  They are not sweeping changes, but they are important.

Each school community is different. Each school has its own special needs and opportunities, and each has a different community of students, parents, teachers and other staff. 

Some teachers will be more suited to a particular school than other teachers. The best people to choose the classroom teacher who best fits the needs, culture and aspirations of a school are the principal, parents and teachers of that school.

That’s what the new staffing procedures are all about: giving school communities more opportunities to choose the qualified teacher who best fits their school.

We are keeping the elements of the old staffing procedures that have worked well for school communities and adding a further option.

At present principals and school communities have no say in more than 90 per cent of classroom teacher appointments.

Equally, only three in every 100 teaching jobs are openly advertised and available to all the excellent experienced and new teachers who may want to apply.

The NSW public education system is world class. Every day more than 50,000 teachers work in more than 2,200 schools around NSW and do a wonderful job teaching our children.

We guarantee that each teacher is qualified and that every classroom has a teacher.

It is a statewide system of schools and is supported by a statewide system of staffing. That will not change

We have excellent schools in country NSW. Teachers who move to many of the more isolated and challenging school locations are recognised with a range of incentives. We are keeping these incentives in all the schools that have them.

We are now looking at ways to make teaching in these, and other, communities even more professionally rewarding.

This new system will be fairer for everyone:

  • fairer for principals and school communities who should be allowed more say in which teachers come to their school,
  • fairer for the 21,000 qualified teachers on a waiting list hoping to get a permanent teaching job,
  • fairer for the teachers already teaching in schools who want to change schools and apply for vacant positions, and
  • fairer for the stream of excellent teaching graduates who abandon the public school system in frustration because under the current system they can’t even apply for the vast majority of jobs.

If you would like more detail, there is a question and answer section on the department’s website, www.det.nsw.edu.au.

There are a couple of misconceptions that I would like to clear up for you. You should be assured that:

  • the Department of Education and Training will ensure every class is taught by a qualified teacher,
  • the changes do not affect teachers’ award rights,
  • the changes do not affect teachers’ tenure or job security, and
  • the changes have been discussed since late last year, not only with the union, but with peak principal and parent groups.

The changes we are introducing are important. They will, over time, strengthen the teaching profession, improve the quality of teaching and learning and help to further deepen relationships between teachers and school communities.

Michael Coutts-Trotter
DIRECTOR-GENERAL OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING
MANAGING DIRECTOR OF TAFE NSW
24 April 2008