Super salaries for teachers under plan starting next year

The amount superior teachers will be paid from next year in a bid to keep them in classrooms has been revealed, with Education Minister Sarah Mitchell unveiling new details of the scheme.

The best school teachers will be paid upwards of $700 per school day as part of the government’s plan to reward talented teachers with super salaries.

Education Minister Sarah Mitchell said the plan to hand out more cash to better teachers devised by Education guru Prof John Hattie could start as soon as next year.

Under the proposed plan, teachers would be paid between $117,000 and $147,000 a year as part of the Rewarding Excellence in Teaching program. That equates to up to $735 per school day, just shy of what someone on the minimum wage earns in an entire week.

The government plan will be subject to some roundtable discussion throughout November but three-quarters of teachers surveyed say they are interested in taking up the lucrative positions.

Sarah Mitchell is aiming to reward great teachers. Picture: Jeremy Piper

The overarching aim is to keep good teachers in the classroom rather than disappearing into school management positions or back office roles in the Department of Education where they typically get paid more money to do less work.

“This approach is about recognising and rewarding the great teachers we have in our

public schools, with the aim of keeping them in the classroom where they do their

magic,” Ms Mitchell said.

Sadly too many teachers go into school management. Picture: Jeremy Piper

Currently long-serving teachers in NSW get a maximum salary of $107,779 but the union is fighting to increase that by between five and 7.5 per cent.

The announcement comes in the wake of the release of horror NAPLAN results on Monday for NSW’s Year 9 boys, which Ms Mitchell vowed to get those students extra tutoring so they can pass the minimum standard.

“I think there’s an opportunity for our schools to look at the student data and make sure that those with extra support, particularly boys in Year 9 who need it for reading are able to access those tutors,” she said.

“We will support our students. We will support our teachers to ensure that we’re seeing students reach those minimum standards.”

The state’s Year 9 boys have returned their worst results for grammar and punctuation in NAPLAN examinations since the tests began more than a decade ago, while the latest annual snapshot of student learning reveals a growing crisis in our regional and remote schools.

NAPLAN test results released on Monday reveal one in six Year 9 boys in NSW did not reach the national minimum standard when it came to grammar, meaning they could not identify a verb in a sentence, could not recognise the tense of a short piece of writing, and were unable to locate commas.

One in 10 of their cohort did not meet the minimum standard in spelling, while one in five failed to make the grade in writing.

More than 12 per cent of Year 9 boys struggled with reading.

The average NAPLAN scores for Year 9 boys lagged behind girls in all test domains, and when it came to average scores in reading, spelling and numeracy their scores were worse than when tests began 14 years ago, with just 83.5 per cent reaching the minimum standard.

The latest results also show things are getting worse outside of major cities, with a record 30.5 per cent of Year 9 students in remote areas failing to reach the national benchmark in reading.

Writing results for that cohort increased marginally last year, but still 46.1 per cent of remote students could not reach the minimum standard.