Performance pay, revamped school hours: Premier flags education reforms | JordsBaker
The premier also wants to slash teachers’ administration burden so they can spend more time on teaching and learning, and to improve access to vocational subjects for students who do not want to go to university.
At present, teachers’ wages climb with time served, but to earn beyond the cap of around $110,000, they have to transition to management. They can go through a rigorous process to become a highly accomplished teacher and earn around $7000 more than the highest teaching pay grade, but few do. Perrottet acknowledged that teachers were bogged down by administrative work that was taking them away from their chief job of teaching and learning. Attempts by the NSW Department of Education“We need to look at having more admin staff in schools,” he said. “It’s taking them away from what they are actually qualified to do. I’m on it, and it’s not going to be tinkering around the edges.”
He also wants to see an increase school-provided activities before and after the traditional school day, recognising that families have changed since the traditional nine to three day was first established. Opponents of performance pay say it is difficult to quantify success in a classroom because there are so many elements to it, and argue there is no evidence that it works.