A union boss has hit out at the NSW government announcement that it is considering introducing higher-paid roles for teachers as part of a desperate bid to retain teachers and attract graduates.
The “groundbreaking plans” announced by NSW Education Minister Sarah Mitchell suggest outstanding teachers could be paid annual salaries of up to $130,000.
The minister said the move to incentivise current and prospective teachers would create stronger career pathways for teachers that would reward excellence.
“NSW has some of the best teachers in the world, but they often leave the classroom and move into management roles to secure higher pay and career progression,” Ms Mitchell said.
“This model is not ‘performance pay’, this is about expanding the career options for teachers and keeping our best in the classroom.”
In the current remuneration model, salaries for NSW teachers begin at $73,737 and peak at $117,060 if the teacher is accredited as “highly accomplished”. The wage can jump to $126,528 if teachers become assistant principals.
The plan to modernise the education system follows a year of strikes from teachers who say they are overworked and underpaid. Members of the NSW Teachers Federation have walked out of the classrooms three times in the last seven months over a dispute about pay and hours.
The federation is demanding an annual pay increase of 5 per cent plus an additional 2.5 per cent in recognition of extra experience as well as two more hours of planning time per week.
NSW is facing a pending education crisis if it cannot attract more teachers to the profession, which will require 3800 additional teachers in the next five years to meet demand.
NSW Teachers Federation president Angelo Gavrielatos, criticised the “frustrating” announcement from the Education Minister that he said offered “nothing new”.
“Unfortunately, what we’re seeing today is another example of tinkering or playing at the edges rather than tackling the crisis at the heart of the issue,” he told Channel 9’s Today show.
“What we need – and governments know we need – is a competitive salary for the profession as a whole. We need to address unsustainable workloads for the profession as a whole in order to attract the teachers we need but, more importantly, retain the ones we’ve got.”
Mr Gavrielatos said the state government needed to urgently address the shortage of teachers “crisis” being experienced at public, private, and Catholic schools in NSW.
“Today’s announcement does not address the supply issues that currently exist, the demand that currently exists and, indeed, this problem is only growing,” he said.
The changes to the state education system will be driven by leading educational expert John Hattie, who will provide independent advice on the reform.
“The rewarding of excellence and expertise is the right topic to realise high standards and maximise positive impacts on students,” Professor Hattie said.
The Department of Education is expected to produce a policy paper with initial recommendations, drawing on input from experienced NSW educators, later this year.
The education system reform announcement comes just a day before Australia’s education ministers will gather to discuss the chronic teacher shortages experienced in all schools around the country.
“We’ve got a crisis. Initial teacher education, the numbers of those go into teaching has plummeted,” Mr Gavrielatos explained.
“Those leaving teachers because of retirement or resignation is skyrocketing and student numbers are growing at an unprecedented level.”
New statistics show 15 per cent of teachers leave the profession within three years of graduating. Even more worrying, an estimated 3 per cent of undergraduates choose to study teaching at university.
The national Quality Initial Teacher Education Review report released this year determined students could be 13 per cent more likely to choose teaching if senior teacher salaries were increased by $30,000.
Mr Gavrielatos said countless surveys pointed to the same result.
“You know what the best thing the ministers could do to boost the supply of teachers? Increase the pay of teachers and deal with their workloads,” he said.
In the federal education meeting on Friday, ministers are set to discuss the projected shortfall of thousands of teachers in the next few years.
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