Watkins sympathetic to drought affected schools

By Owen Hasler

Any school that believes it may lose staffing because of a decline in students caused by the drought conditions in rural NSW should make immediate application for continuity of staffing to the DET and notify their Federation Organiser.

Country Organisers received a number of calls from north-west and western schools at the beginning of the school year indicating that their enrolments had been significantly reduced by the ongoing drought conditions being experienced across NSW.

This was especially the case in a number of P5 schools and where the loss of one or two families who had moved in order to find work opportunities meant that the school enrolments had dropped below the "magic" 55 student number for holding their third teacher. The loss of this teacher meant class sizes would increase and educational programs be negatively affected.

At the instigation of Federation Senior Vice President Angelo Gavrielatos, Federation immediately wrote to Minister Watkins reminding him of his promise made in a media release in late 2002 in which he indicated that no school community would be disadvantaged by the effects of the drought.

Five schools were specifically identified in the Federation's letter and a firm commitment to honour the earlier promise was requested of the Minister.

Minister Watkins responded within 24 hours indicating as follows:

"I completely agree that we need to do all we can to minimise the impact of the drought on rural communities and that stability in our schools is an important component of this.
"As you rightly pointed out, I have made commitments about drought affected schools and I believe my position is clear. In short, I have encouraged any school in the position of potentially losing staff due to enrolment fluctuations brought on by the drought to contact staffing in relation to the particular circumstance. Each case will be judged on its merits and schools will be given a sympathetic hearing.
"Advice today confirms that this policy has been and will continue to be implemented. I understand that one school has already received confirmation that it will retain a teacher despite expected enrolment drops due to drought.
"I agree that any decisions regarding such matters should be made expeditiously. That's why I have today asked the Department to provide urgent advice to these five schools. I can assure you that none of them [the five schools mentioned] will lose teachers, should their enrolment drops be considered to be brought about by the continuing drought. Certainly, no action will be taken to remove any teacher from any of the schools until a full report has been provided to me."

Since the original application to the Minister, a number of other schools have been identified as being adversely affected by the drought and encouraged to make the necessary submission for retention of staffing as suggested by the Minister in his response.

The Federation has been notified that 35 schools have been given a reprieve on their staffing entitlements.Many of these communities are well into their second year of drought with depletion of all ground water storage, rivers have stopped flowing, crops have not been planted, stock have been sold and work opportunities particularly seasonal work have been drastically reduced.

It is of little surprise therefore, to recognise that the drought has caused significant relocation of families with a consequent negative impact on enrolment of students in local schools. It remains to be seen whether the communities will recover prosperity, families return and enrolments increase to previous levels but the maintenance of staffing levels for 2003, as requested by Federation, will soften the impact and allow for continuity of teaching and learning in some of our worst affected schools in rural NSW.

Owen Hasler is a Country Organiser.

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February 2003 contents