Indigenous program talks to champion NSW incentive plan

The Berejiklian government’s incentives and cash bonuses to remote teachers in NSW are expected to be held up as an example.

NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian. Picture: AAP

The Berejiklian government’s incentives and cash bonuses to remote teachers in NSW are expected to be held up as an example for the nation when talks begin between the states and the Coalition on renewed targets for reducing indigenous disadvantage.

The Coalition’s plan to entice teaching graduates into the bush by forgiving their HECS debts is intended to create competition for teaching places in hard-to-staff schools where indigenous students are among the nation’s most disadvantaged.

Mr Morrison’s announcement aligns with one of a suite of incentives introduced in NSW in 2017. NSW Education Minister Rob Stokes yesterday gave the Prime Minister credit for adopting it.

“We welcome any program that attracts hardworking and dedicated teachers to the schools and students that need them most,” Mr Stokes said.

“The NSW Liberals and Nationals government has already been providing free university degrees to new teachers as part of the $140m rural and remote package that was announced in December 2017 — a package aimed at boosting education standards in country schools.’’

Other incentives for teachers who move to remote NSW include a $10,000 sign-on bonus and an additional $5000 a year in their pay for up to 10 years if they stay. Rural and remote teachers in NSW are also favoured when it comes to transfers.

Opposition education spokeswoman Tanya Plibersek said Labor would take a “close look” at the government’s proposal to wipe remote teachers’s HECS debts but argued more should be done to close the gap in education.

Ms Plibersek said the government should back Labor’s plan to increase funding for public schools by $14 billion over the next decade.

“This would mean big funding increases for our neediest schools, including schools with high indigenous enrolments,” she said.

Damian McLean, president of the Shire of Ngaanyatjarraku near the WA-NT border, said enticements for rural teachers seemed to assume “that the current teachers are not the ‘best and brightest’ and therein lies the explanation of poor results, particularly in remote indigenous communities”.

“Indigenous children do not go to school to gain an education built on an intergenerational transmission of learning, cultural values and societal conventions,” Mr McLean said.