DET - Streamlined or up the creek?

The Teachers Federation refutes the statement that 'under the new Education Department restructure, administrative processes have been streamlined to enable more efficient service delivery'.

Angelo Gavrielatos, Senior Vice President, NSW Teachers Federation said today:

"The Minister's response of 17 November to the Auditor General's report belies the reality across the state. This is a further attempt to dress up a $60-70 million budget cut as a beneficial administrative restructure.

Ask any public school if the creation of two additional Deputy Directors-General positions and a new added layer of bureaucracy through the appointment of ten Regional Directors at a cost well over $2.5 million, amounts to a 'streamlining'.

This 'streamlining' was funded by reducing direct support for schools, which occurred when the Minister from January 2004 reduced the number of expert teachers (teaching consultants) who assist schools in the development of programs for students.

The reduction of teaching consultants and the increase in line managers is symptomatic of a Department more focussed on covering up problems as a public relations exercise than on helping students, parents and teachers improve learning and achievement.

How streamlined is a system that now requires teaching consultants in Broken Hill, for example, to drive for two days to attend an administrative meeting in Dubbo, only to turn around and drive back again?

Despite the Government's recent rhetoric on areas such as literacy, expert teacher consultants are being dismissed from their positions.

To add insult, the Minister refuses to pay the few remaining teacher consultants the same salary increases which the Industrial Relations Commission recently granted to other senior teachers in promotions positions.

Public schools are to be congratulated for continuing to do wonderful work for their students, despite the 'streamlining' continually imposed by the Education Department."

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Last Modified: 15 Nov 2005