90 per cent local selection, says deputy D-G

By Angelo Gavrielatos

The new Deputy Director-General (Schools), Trevor Fletcher, has declared that in his view 90 per cent of all school vacancies should be filled by local selection with only 10 per cent being available to meet system needs.

He made the statement at the meeting of the state assembly of the Secondary Principals Council on November 18.

The effect of his plan would be that the staffing system would be destroyed and job security and tenure would be lost. The staffing for our schools will have been deregulated.

In the past two editions of the journal, Federation has articulated a concern that the "consultation" surrounding the Department of Education and Training's Excellence and Innovation document (The Futures Project) will be used as a "Trojan Horse" to usher in a deregulation agenda. The statement by the Deputy Director-General, which follows statements by the Premier and Director-General, adds further weight to these concerns.

If one takes the 12 month period from February 2003 to February 2004, when there were 2443 vacancies, as a case study, the effect of a staffing operation as desired by the Deputy Director-General would have been be been:

• no incentive transfers;
• no compassionate transfers;
• no service transfers; and
• only 240 nominated transfers would have been placed.

In the period described above there was almost 1800 nominated transfers, including classroom teachers, executive and principals. Given that only 10 per cent of vacancies would have been available for "system needs", only 240 teachers would have been placed. Approximately 1560 teachers would have lost their jobs.

The deregulation of staffing is the necessary pre-condition to achieve the ultimate goal of conservative governments, namely devolution.

The politics of devolution dictates that, in attempting to abrogate the responsibility of government to fund quality government services, under the façade of "flexibility" and "local control", governments devolve operational budgets, including staffing budgets, to the local level and in doing so shift responsibility and, more importantly, blame. Devolution ultimately leads to de-funding.

The statewide staffing system and its centrepiece, a system of transfers, is the essential element in ensuring the appointment of teachers in every school across the state and therefore a curriculum guarantee for all students. The statewide staffing system is also the most efficient way of staffing our schools. Filling each vacancy by local selection would result in schools waiting between 6-8 weeks to fill vacancies. The resulting domino effect of necessary backfilling would cause further instability.

Apart from an incentive to teach in difficult-to-staff schools, a statewide staffing system and the transfer system provides an opportunity for teachers to move between schools and therefore further develop their professional skills in a range of schools.

Angelo Gavrielatos is the Senior Vice President.

One rule for them

What to do

No more money for schools but plenty for 'fat cats'

Skinner questions staffing formula

Consultation schedule for all members at a glance

For further information

December 2004 contents