SA Government to roll out new pilot: $20,000 for first-year teachers who commit to country

South Australia’s first-year teachers have the chance to pocket an extra $20,000 – they’ve just got to go and work in the country. But will it work?

Nicola Markovic will graduate in about two months and is hoping to start her career in the country and says an extra $20,000 would be welcome. Picture: Dean Martin

A new cash bonus of $20,000 will be offered in 2024 to entice first-year teachers to the bush where it can be a struggle to fill positions.

The salary boost will be on top of existing incentives, worth up to $10,000 annually, to attract more teachers to country South Australia as part of a two-year, statewide pilot.

Education Minister Blair Boyer, detailing the new plan to The Advertiser, said a national teacher shortage – worse in regional areas – meant it was time to “be flexible and different and do things that we haven’t done before”.

“(It’s) a reflection of the situation nationally and the need to attract more people to teaching but also to keep them in teaching, particularly in the first five years when the attrition rate is high … exacerbated in regional areas.

“(The teacher shortage) is at a more acutely difficult point than it has ever been before.”

In total, 80 positions will be offered at country schools and preschools over the next two years.

Each new educator – in SA entry-level teachers earn around $75,000 – will receive a “getting started bonus of $20,000”. The payment will be split evenly across two years and is conditional on the teacher remaining in the country for their first two years.

Mr Boyer said under the Teach First in Country program, part of the state government’s wider Country Education Strategy, the graduate teachers would be offered wide-ranging, “concierge”-style support from help finding appropriate accommodation to cooking classes where they could “learn a few simple meals”.

Importantly, first-year teachers would be joined for their first five weeks in the classroom by an “expert teacher to help them settle in”.

“We need to wrap as much support around these new teachers as we can to make sure their transition is as easy as it can be … these are really novel, innovative things we haven’t done before,” Mr Boyer said.

“This is a pretty decent-sized pilot and we are going to watch very, very closely what the results are as will other states and territories … if it is as successful as we think it will be, others can do it and we can grow it here.

“The people who suffer when a teacher leaves are the kids, the students and the country areas, we have a responsibility to them to say, ‘there are more things we can do, we’ll do them’ and that is what this is about.”

Blair Boyer says in addition to the financial boost, the new teachers would be offered wide-ranging support. Picture: NCA NewsWire / David Mariuz

Adelaide’s Nicola Markovic, 28, who is in her final months of a teaching degree at Flinders Uni, is hoping to secure a teaching spot under the program in the Eyre Peninsula in 2024, having recently completed a 10-week placement at Port Lincoln Special School as part of a new scholarship program, also aimed to expose pre-service teachers to country schools.

“$20,000 is a huge amount of money for a graduate … it would definitely help in relocating and I think will encourage a lot more people to go to the country … it is definitely enticing, that is for sure,” Ms Markovic said.

Final year teaching student Nicola Markovic, a born and bred city girl, is hoping to get a country post next year with an additional $20,000 in her pay packet. Picture: Dean Martin

But the Australian Education Union SA is unconvinced with president Andrew Gohl describing the new initiative as “window dressing”.

“What it does do is create professional disparity … all the other teachers out there are not getting $20,000 … if the department really wants to support beginning teachers and the entire profession then it will address the excessive workload conditions,” he said.

Mr Gohl said while the in-class support was a good start, five weeks wasn’t long enough.

In SA, country teachers make up about a quarter of South Australia’s teachers in public schools and preschools.

Nationally, a current teacher shortage has been described as an “unprecedented” challenge while last year the Victorian Government launched a controversial campaign offering teachers bonuses of up to $50,000, if they relocated to that state.