Teachers from Coomealla High School and Gol Gol Public School have today walked off the job protesting the reduction in staffing incentives and continued teacher shortages in rural and remote areas of the state.
Gol Gol Public School has been slated to lose their transfer point rating and associated financial and non-financial incentives, which effectively reduces their capacity to attract teachers to fill future vacancies.
Coomealla High School is still short an industrial arts teacher, a science head teacher and a permanent appointment of the principal position. The members have called on the government to immediately address these shortages in order to support the learning needs of their students.
Bulahdelah Central School teachers also stopped work today in solidarity with members at Walgett Community College High School, who walked off the job on Wednesday last week over drastic staff shortages.
With half of all positions at the Walgett Community College High School sitting empty,
Federation members took the drastic step to tell the NSW Government “enough is enough”. There are presently 11 unfilled positions out of 21 at the school.
Many teachers at Bulahdelah CS taught in Walgett and other hard-to-staff areas before transferring to the coast at a time when there was confidence in the Department’s staffing processes.
Over the past decade, though, the Government and Department have weakened previously successful processes that ensured adequate staffing of all schools across the state.
Members have declared their preparedness to take further action should the State Government fail to address the issues.