Submitted by nswtf on
In its first state budget in 2011, the NSW Government announced its intention to reduce public sector expenditure by $10 billion over the next four years and abolish 5000 public service positions. This cost cutting agenda includes the capping of all public sector salaries at 2.5% per annum.
In the same budget, the Treasurer announced the Government’s intention to develop a restructuring of the NSW DEC under the guise of providing more authority to schools at the local level. This was announced as an example of ‘economic and fiscal reform’. Local Schools Local Decisions (LSLD) is the mechanism designed to deliver the savings. Its central purpose is to deregulate the staffing of schools to provide, over time, a cheaper workforce.
To achieve this, LSLD aims to allow schools to replace permanent positions with temporary appointments, to cash-in or trade-off the positions of classroom teachers, specialist teachers and executives, and to replace the state-wide staffing formulae with a local staffing budget.
Staffing formulae are government guarantees that a certain number of students will be allocated a certain number of classroom teachers, executives, specialist teachers and non-teaching support staff. By converting these formulae to a monetary allocation to a school’s budget, governments will no longer be directly accountable. When budgets fail to keep up with rising costs or are reduced, students will lose out on the curriculum guarantee currently determined by staffing formulae and delivered by suitably qualified teachers whose appointment is ensured by the state-wide transfer system.
Class sizes are also threatened. The NSW Government’s Commission of Audit interim report proposes that student : teacher ratios no longer be included in industrial agreements and instead be determined by managerial prerogative.
In addition to the cost cutting intent of LSLD, teachers’ rights and entitlements are threatened by the proposal to allow schools on an alternating basis to refuse the appointment of nominated transfers. This undermines career permanency for teachers, diminishes a crucial incentive for working in public schools and prepares the ground for the future imposition of limited tenure, contract based employment for all. Similarly, allowing schools to determine the mix of staff enables the elimination of classroom teacher and executive positions, thereby reducing career paths and leadership opportunities for teachers.
The drive to reduce the investment in public schools over time also spreads to our neediest students. Every Student, Every School is another cynical marketing term that attempts to mask the policy’s intention – to cap and reduce over time the funding for students with disabilities and special needs. Like Local Schools, Local Decisions, it is a mechanism developed by the DEC to achieve ‘agency savings’ for Treasury.
It is clear that the State Government intends to misuse National Partnership funding for students with disabilities to disguise the real, long term effects of the cap-and-reduce strategy. Current specialist teaching positions will be lost through the conversion to more generalist roles and the expansion of integration. These changes involve a requirement for regular mainstream teachers to meet the needs of students with complex needs without the direct intervention and involvement from specialist teachers who will now be working in a role akin to a consultant.
The restructuring of the DEC poses further threats to Aboriginal education, equity and other programs, curriculum support and other services provided by non-school based staff.
The NSW Government’s cost cutting attack on the public service includes proposed legislation that massively increases fines on unions for taking industrial action in defence of members’ working conditions and the quality of public services provided to the people of New South Wales.
Action:
Federation has demanded a response by Friday May 11 from the NSW Education Minister and DEC on a number of guarantees on staffing, curriculum, class sizes, resourcing and funding of public schools to ensure that existing teaching and learning conditions are maintained.
If the guarantees are not provided, Executive is authorised to call meetings of school members on Friday May 18 of up to two hours to hear a detailed report on the Ministerial / DEC response and to determine the future direction of the campaign.
Prior to May 18, schools are to establish a Salaries, Staffing, Security (SSS) Campaign Committee which includes the Federation Representative, Women’s Contact and other members. This Campaign Committee should engage the whole school community and drive the campaign at the local level in consultation with Organisers.
Associations are encouraged to also form SSS Committees. These committees can, in conjunction with the Organiser, provide support and assistance to Schools Committees.
Federation will continue to develop a range of communication strategies and campaign material including posters, stickers, community leaflets, web-based technologies including vodcasts and podcasts, as well as email and text messaging.
A comprehensive media strategy including television and radio advertising is being developed for implementation.
Federation will request in the IRC that the DEC provide all costings and details of the LSLD agenda, particularly in relation to matters currently covered in Awards and industrial agreements. This is to include details of the Resource Allocation Model and its potential impacts.
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