On February 5, before any negotiations had been completed between the NSW Teachers Federation and the NSW Labor government, education minister John Della Bosca announced that from the end of the second term in 2010, public school principals will no longer be obliged to the statewide staffing system.
"More schools will now have the option of either having a teacher centrally allocated [by the education department] or choosing their own through open advertisements", Della Bosca said. NSW Teachers Federation senior vice-president Gary Zadkovich told the media that teachers were deeply concerned about what they saw as a phased dismantling of the statewide staffing system.
"We have a new minister for education and director-general who do not understand the central importance of a statewide staffing system that has transfers as a key component", he said. "The best means by which we can attract and keep teachers in the harder-to-staff parts of the state is through a statewide transfer system."
Indeed, the changes announced by Della Bosca will undermine the statewide staffing system that has served all public schools for decades. Implementing a system where principals can directly hire teachers will disadvantage schools that have difficulty attracting and retaining staff, such as schools in isolated and rural areas.
The planned system of local selection will inevitably result in students in some schools being left without qualified teachers. It will mean a reduction of subjects available for students. The experience overseas, particularly in England where there is a shortage of teachers, shows that in more difficult to staff schools students are taught by teacher's aides.
The statewide staffing system helps provide qualified teachers to all public schools. It permits graduate teachers to start out at regional or outer suburban schools in return for their preferred posting later in their careers.
Having access to a statewide staffing system is an important occupational entitlement. It secures a teacher's right to employment security, as opposed to a contract-based employment system where permanency is tenuous.
By weakening the statewide staffing system, the NSW Labor government is implementing some of the worst aspects of the recently defeated federal Coalition government's workplace legislation, including performance pay, limited tenure and individual contracts.
As Zadkovich observed: "John Howard and Julie Bishop ... talked about principals having the power to hire and fire. That's the agenda that was roundly defeated last year."
Della Bosca's announcement comes on top of attempts by the NSW Labor government to lower teacher qualification standards in TAFE, denial of the need to employ more teachers and a 2.5% pay offer, which is a cut in real terms.
Zadkovich announced that the Teachers Federation "will mount a very significant and sustained campaign to protect our students and our teachers" from the NSW government's Howard-style education "reforms".
At its March 8 meeting, the union's state council will discuss and decide on proposals for a campaign of state-wide action to be put to school stop-work meetings before the end of the first term. The campaign will aim to address the maintenance of teacher qualification standards, and the employment of additional teachers to reduce existing teacher workloads and thus better meet the needs of students.
The campaign will also address the union's claim for at least a 5% per year pay rise for public school teachers for the next three years.
[Noreen Navin is a NSW Teachers Federation state councillor.]