NSW Education Department: 2394 teachers leave, 321 sacked for abandoning students
A massive number of NSW public school teachers have been sacked for abandoning their employment, and students.
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A record number of dud teachers have finally been put out to pasture this year following a Department of Education review into its human resources practices.
A total of 321 teachers have been terminated so far this year after the “Workforce Transition team” undertook a review of staff who had effectively deserted their positions.
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“This review resulted in a large number of staff being deemed as having abandoned their employment and were terminated as a result,” a note accompanying the data said.
By comparison, last year only 10 teachers were terminated by the Department of Education.
Parent groups welcomed the surge in sackings of teachers who were in a kind of education purgatory -- no longer teaching in classrooms nor officially fired-- saying it will free up space for enthusiastic young teachers to secure a permanent job.
This year a total of 2394 teachers left the job including those who were terminated, along with 850 public school teachers who resigned so far this year, 1,152 who retired, 44 who were medically retired and 26 who died while still employed as a teacher.
NSW P and C Federation president Tim Spencer said the highly unionised workforce meant it was difficult to get rid of dud teachers and welcomed the push which would clear the decks and give young enthusiastic teachers the opportunity to get a permanent job.
“It is challenging for a principal to deal with staff who either just don’t turn up to work or go on prolonged stress leave, they have to replace them with casuals,” he said.
“(There) has to be a reasonable and rational discussion as to why that person is not performing their role just like it would be in any other workplace and dealing with it appropriately.”
Central Coast P and C president Sharryn Brownlee said the move could save thousands for the Education Department if the teachers had been still getting paid while on leave, at the same time principals had to pay another casual teacher to take their classes.
“It is long overdue… dragging things out for long periods of time is stressful for the individual and the school,” she said.
Secondary Principals’ Council president Craig Petersen said some teachers simply would never return from annual leave and the Department of Education had no mechanism to fire them.
“These are people we haven’t seen for months and terms and in extreme cases, years,” he said.
A Department spokesman said they wrote to the teachers seeking explanation for their unauthorised absence this year.
“The teachers who did not respond, or did not provide a valid reason for their absence, were terminated,” he said.
Education Minister Sarah Mitchell said the Department had done a great job reviewing unauthorised absences.
“Freeing these positions allows our principals to fill permanent roles with high quality teachers,” she said.
Shadow Education spokeswoman Prue Car said more needed to be done to keep good teachers in schools following the resignation of 850 teachers this year.
“It’s concerning there is no proper plan to keep our best and brightest teachers in our schools,” Ms Car said.