Dalton Fights For Inclusion Of Rural Schools in Pilot Administration Program

Independent Member for Murray, Helen Dalton has called on the State government to include rural schools in the pilot administration program.

The program promises to free up to 200 teachers from some administration tasks.

The problem is the program is only being rolled out across schools in Sydney, Lithgow and Port Macquarie.

Mrs Dalton said teachers across Murray were being swallowed up by bureaucracy, unnecessary administration and red tape.

“Teachers are leaving schools, burnt out from increased workloads and it is time to look outside the square for solutions,” Mrs Dalton said.

“Schools right across Murray are struggling to fill vacant teching roles which is impacting on the education of our children.

“Additional administration roles will help make teaching more attractive and lighten the workload.”

Mrs Dalton said Murrumbidgee Regional High School currently had 14 vacandies, five of which had been unfilled for longer than six months.

She said an internal department of education document stated vacant teacher positions had surged to over 2000 places last year, with stagnant salaries and increasing workloads turning people away from the profession.

As a result, she would like to see the increases in the point incentive status system implemented across rural areas.

“We need access to the pilot administration program, financial incentives, access to housing and a decrease in red tape,” Mrs Dalton said.

“Once we start implementing these initiatives, we will start to get more teachers back into rural areas and the education opportunities for our children will certainly improve, along with the health and welfare of our very important teaching staff.”

• Topics:

• Education
• Politics