President Writes by Henry Rajendra: Education Quarterly, Issue 19 2026
Recently, we all marked Public Education Week and, like me, I’m sure it gave you pause to reflect on the transformative nature of our work as teachers. Public education is the hothouse of democracy, inclusion and social progress within NSW, spanning everything from sport for every child, whether it’s rep squads or just having a go, through to the school plays and musicals, where we witness students’ confidence grow in real time. And don’t forget debating, bands, carnivals and choirs — all of which is before you even consider the core curriculum.
But as we all know, none of this happens in a vacuum. There’s no AI algorithm enriching, extending and empowering our kids. Every musical demands a teacher to direct it, every team requires a teacher to coach it and every gifted program has a teacher who planned and built it. Our members have become coaches, directors, mentors and event managers on top of teaching — and they take it on because they believe every child deserves the chance to flourish.
What everyone should understand in the wake of Public Education Week is that teachers do much of this in and around an already full workload — and very often in their own time. While that generosity is remarkable, it is also unsustainable.
What our teachers are short of is well understood: preparation time. It is the time used away from the class to plan the lesson that reaches the child at the back of the room, to speak with a therapist about a student whose needs have changed, to properly mark work and to adjust for tomorrow, based on what happened today. It is the time it takes to teach well.
The allocation itself tells the story. Primary teachers are still working to a preparation entitlement set in the 1980s, at around two hours a week. For our secondary colleagues, that figure has not shifted since the 1950s. Yet, everything around it has changed. The number of students with disability in our public schools has grown to more than 220,000, and most are now taught in mainstream classes. The curriculum has been regularly overhauled and the range of needs in front of every teacher has widened. Teaching demands have climbed with each passing decade, while the time set aside to meet them has stayed exactly where it was.
Five years ago, the Gallop Inquiry recommended two additional hours of preparation time a week as a matter of urgency. Teachers and families are still waiting.
The Government’s own department has now made the case for us. Its recently published guide, What Works Best 2025 names well-planned collaboration among eight practices proven to lift student learning, engagement and wellbeing. The guide is clear that this does not happen by good intentions alone: teachers have to be given the time to plan and work together — and it works best when that time is built into the week, rather than stacked on top of an already full teaching load. Preparation time is how a school builds in time for collaboration.
The Minns Government has done real work on public schools: competitive salaries, a commitment to the Gonski School Resource Standard funding and thousands of teachers made permanent. A commitment on preparation time would complete that work. An extra two hours each week is what the modern profession demands — and it is what we are pushing for, to ensure that every teacher has the time they need to keep delivering excellence for their students.
This is the case we will keep making. Our members give so much to the children of this state. It’s time they were given the time.