Entries from February 2008 ↓

Justine Ferrari, Education writer | February 05, 2008
(http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,23161015-13881,00.html)

PUBLIC schools in NSW will be free to hire their own teachers under changes announced yesterday, but the union has threatened to fight the move.

Education Minister John Della Bosca said all government schools would have the option of advertising openly to fill vacancies.

Schools would still have the choice of asking the Education Department to appoint a teacher, as occurs in the current system. But from the second term in 2010, principals will no longer be obliged to accept the teacher at the top of the department’s transfer list.

Selection panels for the vacancies will comprise the principal, a teacher nominated by staff and representatives from the wider school community, such as the PC.

Research fellow with the Centre for Independent Studies Jennifer Buckingham said the changes brought NSW in line with South Australia and Western Australia, and closer to the fully autonomous system in Victoria, where principals have the power to hire and fire and run their own budget.

But the NSW Teachers Federation signalled industrial action to fight the move, which it said would abolish the supply line of teachers into disadvantaged areas and was the first step in dismantling centralised control over schools.

In a briefing on the changes sent to teachers yesterday, the director-general of the Education Department, Michael Coutts-Trotter, also said incentives to attract staff to rural schools would be reviewed and additional incentives developed to encourage staff to move to where they were most needed.

He said schools had no say in about 90 per cent of classroom teacher appointments. “Only three in every 100 classroom teaching positions are open to all qualified teachers,” he said.

The system of priority placements would remain to cater for teachers wanting to move out of so-called hardship postings.

But senior vice-president of the NSW Teachers Federation Gary Zadkovich said schools did not compete on an equal footing in their ability to hire staff.

“We don’t have a level playing field when it comes to schools and their ability to recruit and retain teachers and we’re now looking at the effective dismantling of the statewide transfer system,” he said.

“That system provides security of employment … and also ensures teachers are supplied to schools in western Sydney and country areas where teachers are less likely to want to work.”

Mr Zadkovich said it was highly likely a range of political and industrial action would be taken against the measure.

A spokesman for Mr Della Bosca said the system was already being used in regional NSW and southwest Sydney and had attracted a good response to job ads, with as many as 30 applicants for one job in some cases.
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The Education forum has conducted 3 study sessions so far with a good cross section of persons representing Associations of teachers, principals, and past pupils and  educationists and well wishers. Compilation of past legislations, circulars and Policy papers are now complete. Paper copies of these can be obtained for the cost of photocopying from Ms. Inoka Udayanganie at Sri Lanka Foundation Institute. Compilation of proposals from various groups into one document is in progress.

Following is a summary of discussions so far.

January 24

RMB Senanayake (Economist); Tissa amarakoon, WA Upali Alwis, Y. Madavan (North Colombo Community Organization);  and Gamini Jayakody ((School Development Committee, Kotahena),); HM Dayananda (Principal, Kotahena Kanishta Vidyalaya); K Shanmugalingam (Viluthu); Nishantha Kamaldasa (Distance Education Center, SLIDA); Amal Siriwardena, Sujata gamage

January 31

RMB Senanayake, AMRB Amarakoon, Savimon Urugodawatte; Luxman Siriwardean, Sudath Ransinghe and Joseph Stalin; Sterling Perera, Amal Siriwardena, Sujata Gamage

February 07

Gamini Jayakody (School Development Committee, Kotahena), Nisha Arunatilake (Economist); Amal Siriwardena, Sujata Gamage

Decisions to Date

§  Prepare a preamble

§  Compile all past Legislation, Circulars and Policy Papers and make those available to all interested parties

§  Compile also the proposals from the members of the Forum

o   Mr. Gamini Jayakody  will prepare recommendations from a school development committee perspective

o   Mr. Daya\nanda will send the viewpoints of the Association of Princiapls  that he represents

o   Mr. Joseph Stalin will forward the recommendations from the Lanka Guru Sangamaya

o   Madhya Viyalleya AAdi Shisya Samagamaya and Viluthu  have already sent their proposals

o   English education should begin from Grade I (Gamini Jayakody)

o   If for some reason a private school were to close there should be safeguards for the parents and students (Nisha Arunatilaka)

o   Ms. Inoka will compile all the materials and idea

§  Prepare a draft set of proposals that may be submitted as a consensus document from the Forum

In Sri Lanka, as in many others countries with a centralized teacher service, there is a problem of getting teachers to locate In poor rural (and estate) areas, when they can tap patronage systems to obtain transfers to more popular areas. Various incentives schemes have been tried, in a number of countries including Sri Lanka, but with limited success.
An alternative, to address the problem of staffing poor rural and estate schools, would be to appoint teachers directly to schools, perhaps combined with an extra financial allowance as an incentive. Then, if teachers wanted to move to new schools, they would need to resign from their present appointments and seek a fresh appointment in another school, rather than seek a transfer.
Here are some examples of countries that recruit teachers: (a) directly to schools; (b) to local administrations; and (c) central or intermediate levels.
Teachers hired by individual schools: e.g. China, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Ireland, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Sweden, England and Wales.
Teachers hired by local administrations such as school districts: e.g. Finland and the USA.
Hiring at a higher level of government (intermediate/central): e.g. Greece, Turkey, Sri Lanka.

Harsha Aturupane