$50,000 cash bonuses offered for teachers to turn around troubled urban schools
With some urban schools struggling with staff shortages and bad grades, the state government has devised a new plan to attract teachers and staff.
Education
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Teachers and principals will be lured to struggling urban schools with cash bonuses of up to $50,000 in the bid to improve attendance and results among students.
A $244.6 million package has been unveiled by the state government today as part of the biggest investment for troubled schools.
The plan includes an unprecedented $41.7 million in financial incentives, including up to $50,000 to encourage teachers to work in hard-to-staff positions and schools.
This will also include payments of up to $9,000 over three years to encourage teachers to remain in positions for longer.
Promising new graduates will also be lured with $5.6 million for employment-based pathways into teaching, allowing people to learn on the job while undergoing postgraduate studies.
A further $41.5 million will see more than forty executive principals employed to take on the most complex schools in the state.
Education Minister James Merlino said the package would help turnaround struggling schools.
“Our teachers work extremely hard to give our kids the best education, and we want to give them the support they deserve,” he said.
“Great teachers change lives. That’s why we’re working so hard to attract the best people to teaching and supporting them to stay in our classrooms.”
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Opposition education spokeswoman Cindy McLeish said the plan appeared to be a step in the right direction of tackling issues in school but said the devil is in the detail.
“It is not really clear what they consider as a challenging school,” she said.
“We have got a whole lot of issues in schools. Now the government solution is to throw money at it to get people at country and challenging schools but I don’t think it’s the only solution.”
Ms McLeish pointed to studies that showed schools needed strong disciplinary policies and also flagged that teachers and principals’ “hands were tied” when troublesome students and situation arose.
Another concern was that putting bonuses into urban areas would leave rural schools struggling to recruit.
“I would hope that we don’t see people not taking positions in the country because they are taking one in the city with the same reward on offer,” she said.