Parliamentary Secretary for the Central Coast, Adam Crouch, has hit back at claims by Member for Gosford, Liesl Tesch, that the State Government is not doing enough to attract teachers to our schools.
Tesch said Education Minister, Sarah Mitchell, promised 3,700 new teachers across the state to help solve the growing teacher shortage but only 27 new teachers for the entire state have been added in the 10 months since the program was announced.
“Out of the thousands of schools across our state, only 27 extra teachers have been delivered – barely enough to cover the staff required at a single local high school,” Tesch said.
“We know that schools are forcing classes to combine which leads to poor outcomes for students’ learning and teachers’ wellbeing.
“Educators across the state have been ditching the classroom in search of better working conditions and career opportunities, especially as pay levels have stagnated or even declined under the Government’s policy of public sector wage caps.
“As a teacher, I know how undervalued our educators are; it is not a job where you simply clock-off in the afternoon and do not think about it until the next shift.”
Tesch said within secondary schools alone, without immediate action there will be a shortfall of 1,700 educators within three years’ time.
“Recent surveys of over 11,300 teachers in NSW also found that 60 per cent intend to leave the profession in the next five years,” she said.
But Crouch said the Teacher Supply Strategy launched in late 2021 is a 10-year plan which includes a range of innovative measures designed to create a diverse and sustainable pipeline of teachers to support our students into the future.
“We are in year one of implementing a 10-year strategy,” he said.
“Initiatives are progressing well, with significant design and early implementation activity underway.
“To support delivery of the strategy, the NSW Government committed an immediate investment of $125M over four years.
“Building on our existing successful pipeline of teachers, the strategy will deliver 3,700 teachers with the right subject qualifications placed in locations of need over the next 10 years; 1,600 of these teachers will be delivered over the first five years.”
Crouch said the strategy focuses on three strategic priorities to increase the appeal of the profession and help to remove and reduce barriers to attracting more teachers by diversifying teacher supply channels to strengthen an ongoing supply of teachers into the future.
“While some initiatives are focused on growing the supply of teachers in the fastest way possible, many of the strategy initiatives are about designing, developing and testing innovative approaches to nurture and diversify pipelines into studying teaching and the teaching profession so that we have a sustainable workforce to meet future demand,” he said.
“The strategy includes evidence-based measures and innovative pilot programs with built-in evaluation.
“This will help us better understand what works and what does not, allowing us to make better investment decisions into the future.
“The Centre for Education Statistics and Evaluation (CESE) will lead the evaluation of the strategy.”
Terry Collins