The Minns Labor Government is giving more time back to teachers and principals to focus on helping their students in the classroom by scrapping the need to re-demonstrate their accreditation practice to the regulator every 5 years.
The burdensome task of accreditation maintenance will be simplified under the changes, bringing NSW into line with other states and territories. From November, teachers will simply need to declare to the NSW Education Standards Authority (NESA), that they have completed the required professional development aligned to the Australian Professional Standards for Teachers.
Principals will no longer need to sign off on a teacher’s practice every 5 years under the revamp, but schools must continue to notify NESA if they have determined a teacher fails to meet the necessary Australian Professional Standards for Teachers.
The move is part of the Minns Labor Government’s drive to ensure teachers in government, Catholic and independent schools are spending more time teaching and less time on administrative tasks.
Since coming to office the Government has halved more than 70 mandated changes to policies and processes in public schools, put on hold new pilots, and hired more than 400 new administrative staff to relieve teachers of some of the tasks that were taking them away from the classroom.
Teachers still need to complete the 100 hours of professional development every 5 years. Completing professional development ensures teachers are up to date with relevant content, skills and pedagogy, and supports their professional growth.
The changes place a greater emphasis on the importance of ongoing professional development and recognise that fully accredited teachers are qualified, meet child safety requirements and have already met tough standards to be accredited.
Deputy Premier and Minister for Education and Early Learning Prue Car said:
“It is vital that we set high benchmarks for teachers entering the profession, but once they are in the classroom we also play a role in ensuring they want to stay. Removing unnecessary tasks from teachers’ to-do lists is one way we are doing that.
“Under the previous Liberal National Government teachers were overburdened with admin tasks which took them away from what their core role – to bring education alive in the classroom.
“This is sensible policy that is based on respect for the profession, where appropriate verification and standards are in place.
“We want teachers who have already demonstrated they meet rigorous standards to focus on doing their job – not spending unnecessary extra hours proving that they are doing it.”
