NSW Education to employ 400 administration staff to ease paperwork burden on teachers

The union representing school admin staff has embraced the $24 million decision to hire an of 400 helpers to save NSW’s most overworked public school teachers, saying it will prevent teacher burnout.

An army of more than 400 helpers are on their way to save NSW’s most overworked public school teachers from their crippling paperwork burden in one of the most significant financial investments to reduce workloads in recent memory.

One in five schools are expected to benefit from more school administrative and support staff starting next term, and those with the highest current staff vacancies and struggling most to recruit teachers will be prioritised for funding.

Each school that qualifies will be able to either hire new staff or top up their existing staff members’ hours, with the aim of freeing up teachers to spend more time on their students’ needs and improve job satisfaction amid an exodus of early career teachers and early retirements.

The union representing school admin staff described the boost as “welcome news”, and a measure which would prevent teacher burnout, resulting in them leaving the profession.

“Support staff are critical to making sure our kids, especially those with disabilities, learning difficulties, and challenging home environments, can make it through the mainstream school system,” said Public Service Association General Secretary Stewart Little.

Quakers Hill East Public School Year 6 teacher Laurie Hayhow (right) and school administrative officer Kim Henderson. Kim has been assisting Laurie with administrative tasks for the last few months, freeing her from burdensome paperwork and giving her more time to dedicate to the school's dance troupe. Picture: Jonathan Ng

“Over half of these new 400 jobs will be going to regional schools so it’s a great boost for jobs in the bush, which is fantastic.”

Feedback from teachers revealed staff are undertaking hours of extra tasks on top of their classroom teaching responsibilities each day, ranging from calling bus companies to confirm drivers for an excursion, to filing NDIS documentation for disabled students.

Dynamic duo: Detail-orientated Kim embraces the opportunity to give Laurie her teaching time back to her. Picture: Jonathan Ng

Some of that work will be now be taken off teachers’ plates by the new admin assistants, as has already happened for Quakers Hill East Public School teacher Laurie Hayhow thanks to administration officer Kim Henderson who has moved from the front office to assisting teachers directly.

Ms Hayhow, a Year 6 teacher and dance troupe leader, said she previously found her time being swallowed up by printing lesson resources, emailing dance costume suppliers and filling out performance applications, and chasing up permission slips and absence notes – resulting in a work day that started at 7.20am and didn’t end until 11.30pm.

“A large amount of my time is spent on administration tasks relating to extra-curricular activities, data collection and management and paperwork involved in school event organisation,” Ms Hayhow said.

“Now I’m able to sit down with the admin team and go through the details, and they’re able to pull it together for me.

Education Minister Prue Car is due to sign a ‘statement of intent’ on solving the teacher shortage crisis with teacher and parent representatives on Thursday. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Christian Gilles

“It means I can put my time back into preparing lessons and making sure that I’m providing the best quality teaching and care that I can.”

Ms Henderson said she’s glad to be “taking care of the nitty gritty things that need to be done” to give teaching time back to her colleagues.

“I’m quite attention-to-detail focused, and I want to help teachers as much as I can,” she said.

The hiring blitz follows a trial of 200 administrative staff introduced to schools earlier this year under the previous government, with the new commitment effectively tripling that initial investment. The move is expected to cost approximately $24 million of previously unallocated funding from within the department’s budget. Education Minister Prue Car’s office was unable to confirm the figure.

It comes as the Education Minister and the department prepare to sign a Statement of Intent with representatives from the NSW Teachers’ Federation, Primary and Secondary Principals’ associations and the P & C Federation at Parramatta High School today (Thursday), putting in writing the government’s pre-election promise to reduce administrative burden on teachers and make their workloads more reasonable and sustainable.

“Teachers signed up to teach our children not to fill out paperwork,” Ms Car said.

“We can’t afford to see more teachers leave the profession at a time when we are already dealing with a teacher shortage crisis.

“Schools Administration and Support Staff are often the first friendly face you see when you visit a school. Now we will be seeing more of them supporting our schools.”