Education : journal of the N.S.W. Public School Teachers Federation

Call Number
Nef 331.8809944 EDU
Created/Published
Sydney : The Federation, 1919-2021
Issue
Vol. 92 No. 11 (14 Nov 2011)
Images
36
View Catalogue

Contents

EDUCATION Journal of the New South Wales Teachers Federation 1
Teachers demand fair offer from O'Farrell 1 , 4
47 school devolution trial is a political deceit 1 , 7
EDUCATION 2
Executive 2
Officers 2
Contents 2
Advertising 2
Test-driven accountability looms 3
O’Farrell pushes TAFE teachers onto Fair Work Act 3
Our Fed Reps 3
Workload increases with online testing 4
IRC finds salaries offer inconsistent with Government's wages policy 4
Teachers stand united against O'Farrell's cuts to real incomes 5
Make a difference: Teach 6
inquire now 6
Targeting the poorest performing schools 6
Association spotlight Wellington Teachers Association 6
Primary Principals' Association undermines teacher permanency 7
Advertising 7
What funding equity would mean for our school 8
Forum opposes fees for preschools in public schools 8
TAFE teachers lobby Federal MPs 9
TAFE students to be shackled with debt 9
TAFE students win back their art classes 9
Public service bill expects integrity and trust 10
Federation launches smartphone-friendly website 10
UNITE to end violence against women 10
Advertising 10
Disability support study wins grant 11
YOU ME UNITY 11
Advertising 11
In brief 12
The Public Education Peloton raises over $9000 for MS research 12
Schools come together for science fun 13
In brief 13
Advertising 13 , 14
Association celebrates the Green Bans Forty years on, the impact of the Green Bans is seen in Sydney's preserved history and bushlands. 15
Tree planting gets green light 15
O’Farrell must now know we’re serious The numbers are stacking up against the O’Farrell Government’s hardline position on teacher salaries. 16
letters 16
MARRIAGE PROBLEMS 16
BANK ON THE NAME CHANGE 17
VOTE NO TO THE BANK 17
HAPPY HEATHEN 17 , 18
BEWARE OF AGENDAS 18
DON'T TAKE THE ADVICE 18
DEFENDING OUR PIONEERS 18
Advertising 17 , 18
features 19
Numbers show enrolment equity is our great challenge The performance of disadvantaged schools would improve under a fairer enrolment system. 19 , 20
Inside 19
Advertising 20
A drift away from low SES schools 20
Have a heart A day of activities and personal stories gave students and school communities an understanding of the importance of organ donation. 21
The poetry competition’s winning entry 21
Paper Plane 21
Advertising 22
Retired Teachers Association 23
Social news 23
Class of ’58... you are requested to commence duty. 23
In the library 24
Greens bill offers hope for Gosford Public School 24
In brief 24
your say 25
When should our workday end Mr O’Farrell? The NSW Government's salary offer fails to acknowledge the time TAFE teachers spend working outside class. 25
Inside 25
Gas extraction disastrous for NSW 26
Reviving the mighty Murray-Darling 26
Key points of the plan 26
Advertising 26
reviews 27
Film 27 , 28
Inside 27
Computer corner 28
Advertising 28
Theatre 29
Book Permaculture Diary and Calendar 2012 29
Advertising 29
Book 30
Corkscrew 30
administration 31
2012 Trade Union Training program Semester 1 31 , 33
Advertising 32 , 34 , 35
DT SMITH. 35
Snapped in and out of class 36

Text

EDUCATION  

Journal of the New South Wales Teachers Federation  

lan’s been on his bike  

Plus  

Smartphones 10  

Tree levy 15  

President Writes 16  

November 14, 2011 Vol 92 No 11  

Teachers demand fair offer  

from O'Farrell  

Federation members gave overwhelming support to further  

stopworks in the absence of fair and reasonable salary negotiations.  

Federation Members at the Belmont 16ft Sailing Club voted for further action on November 29 if necessary.  

Bob Lipscombe  

President  

Members of the Teachers Federa-  

tion across NSW overwhelmingly  

rejected the O'Farrell Government's  

proposed cut to the real incomes of  

teachers employed in public schools,  

TAFE colleges and other public  

sector areas at the more than 250  

stopwork meetings held across the  

state on November 2.  

With the overwhelming major-  

ity of teachers in schools and other  

workplaces covered by the Federa-  

tion participating in the stopwork  

action, over 99 per cent of teachers  

who attended their local meeting to  

hear the reports and vote on the ex-  

ecutive recommendation have re-  

jected the proposal that would put  

teacher incomes on downward  

spiral. This is, of course, at the very  

time when the O’Farrell Govern-  

ment needs to maintain professional  

and attractive salaries if it is to have  

any hope of attracting and retaining  

the many thousands of new teach-  

ers needed in the next few years to  

replace retiring baby boomers.  

No parent will thank the O’Farrell  

Government in the years ahead if it  

succeeds in making teaching such  

an unattractive proposition that it  

becomes impossible to ensure there  

is properly qualified teacher in  

front of their child’s class.  

In addition to rejecting the  

O'Farrell Government's disgraceful  

salaries offer, teachers at the meet-  

ings demanded the Government  

immediately make fair and rea-  

sonable offer on salaries and nego-  

tiate in good faith.  

While the opportunity now  

exists for the O'Farrell Government  

to sit down with the Federation and  

negotiate reasonable salaries out-  

comes, members have made it very  

clear that in the absence of such an  

approach by the Government, the  

Federation Executive and/or Coun-  

cil should call 24-hour stopwork  

on November 29. Members have  

also made it very clear that should  

these meetings be necessary, they  

are to consider recommendations  

for further industrial action, includ-  

ing industrial action at the com-  

mencement of the 2012 school and  

college year.  

The salaries offers for school and  

TAFE teachers belatedly forward-  

ed to the Federation at 4.37 pm on  

Monday October 31 are an insult to  

the profession.  

For school teachers, it has pro-  

posed 2.5 per cent increase for  

each of two years, full percentage  

point below the current inflation  

rate. If it were accepted, typical  

teacher at the top of the incremen-  

tal scale will be around $l7 dollars  

week worse off in real terms next  

year. The following year they will  

be around $35 week worse off in  

real terms.  

Of course, the offer to school  

teachers also included non-com-  

mittal references to the possibility  

of further increases next year, aris-  

ing from possible savings identified  

through the Local Schools, Local De-  

cisions consultation currently un-  

derway. Interestingly, with an addi-  

tional one per cent of salary worth  

more than $6O million in the first  

year alone, the Local Schools, Local  

Decisions process will have to result  

in dramatic loss of principal and  

teaching positions, and/or signifi-  

cant school closures if it is to fund  

even modest salary increase.  

For TAFE teachers and those  

in related areas, the offer is in  

two parts. Firstly, 2.5 per cent per  

annum without loss of any condi-  

»  

47 school devolution  

trial is political deceit  

Cost-cutting and opting out of the staffing  

system are the true motives behind devolution.  

Gary Zadkovich  

Deputy President  

Tire so-called evaluation of the 47-  

school devolution trial recently pub-  

lished by the Department of Educa-  

tion and Communities (DEC) is little  

more than an opinion survey mask-  

ing the political deceit of increased  

school-based decision making.  

The flawed evaluation  

methodology  

The 47 schools involved in this trial  

were "volunteered" by their princi-  

pals, who obviously are pre-disposed  

to having increased local decision  

making. These self-selected princi-  

pals were then asked their views by  

the private consultancy contract-  

ed by the DEC, and unsurprisingly,  

they confirmed they had not erred  

in participating in the trial.  

None of the hundreds of teach-  

ers employed in the 47 schools were  

interviewed by the consultancy.  

Parent spokespersons from only six  

schools were interviewed.  

Reports of stunning improve-  

ments in some schools’ NAPLAN  

results invite questions about the  

evaluation's methodology, as does  

its failure to reveal the details of the  

additional funding allocations that  

contributed to the trial’s "success”.  

The evaluation report’s attempt to  

argue that schools benefited from  

new-found “flexibilities”, even if  

they hadn't received additional  

funding, is typical of the political  

spin that has characterised the trial  

since its inception.  

The cost-cutting motive  

Devolution equals defunding. It’s  

why governments have been push-  

ing it for decades. After the Kennett  

government imposed its self-man-  

aging schools agenda in the 19905,  

Victorian public schools became  

the most devolved in the country.  

Now Victorian governments spend  

12 per cent less per student than  

here in NSW. It’s why Boston Con-  

sulting Group used Victoria’s de-  

volved system as the benchmark  

for its Expenditure Review of the De-  

partment of Education and Training  

(DET) Initial Scan (January 2010),  

conducted for the previous NSW  

Labor Government.  

If NSW replicated the Victorian  

approach, 7500 teachers and 1500  

support positions would be cut  

from public schools. One hundred  

schools would be closed. Hundreds  

of millions of dollars would be cut  

from equity, special education and  

other programs.  

Victorian principals may have  

greater say over their budgets and  

staffing, but they have less of both.  

One can only wonder, therefore, at  

the reasoning of the 39 principals  

in the trial who agreed with the  

statement, “I was able to do more  

for my school at lower cost than  

before.” This finding contradicts  

the fact that at least half the schools  

were given additional funding by  

the DEC, depending on the gap be-  

tween their actual staff costs and  

the state-wide average. This fund-  

ing was used to pay for the addi-  

tional staff positions created, which  

unsurprisingly, yieldedbenefits for  

the schools involved.  

None of this funding was de-  

tailed in the evaluation report, pre-  

sumably because it will be ripped  

out if the DEC proceeds to state-  

wide implementation. As Federa-  

tion has said since the outset of the  

trial, this so-called "top-up” funding  

is the inducement to win support  

for the devolution concept.  

Once accepted, this additional  

funding is to be cut, as confirmed  

by Boston Consulting Group in its  

review: “To capture savings from  

devolution requires more than the  

rollout of the current trial cur-  

rent trial involves additional costs  

that will need to be phased out (eg.  

To cover higher than average staff  

costs in some schools) and does not  

yet address staffing implications at  

the State and Regional Office.”  

more detailed explanation of  

the true intention behind the devo-  

lution trial is outlined on page 146  

of the Boston Consulting Group  

report, which is still available on  

the Sydney Morning Herald website.  

»  

Cite

Citation options:
Work identifier

http://nla.gov.au/nla.obj-667367722

APA citation

N.S.W. Teachers' Federation & New South Wales Public School Teachers' Federation. (1919). Education : journal of the N.S.W. Public School Teachers Federation Retrieved August 13, 2025, from http://nla.gov.au/nla.obj-667367722

MLA citation

N.S.W. Teachers' Federation and New South Wales Public School Teachers' Federation. Education : journal of the N.S.W. Public School Teachers Federation Sydney: The Federation, 1919. Web. 13 August 2025 <http://nla.gov.au/nla.obj-667367722>

Harvard/Australian citation

N.S.W. Teachers' Federation & New South Wales Public School Teachers' Federation. 1919, Education : journal of the N.S.W. Public School Teachers Federation The Federation, Sydney viewed 13 August 2025 http://nla.gov.au/nla.obj-667367722

Wikipedia citation

{{Citation
  | author1=N.S.W. Teachers' Federation.
  | author2=New South Wales Public School Teachers' Federation.
  | title=Education : journal of the N.S.W. Public School Teachers Federation.
  | year=1919
  | section=volumes.
  | issn=0013-1156
  | issue=Vol. 92 No. 11 (14 Nov 2011)
  | location=Sydney
  | publisher=The Federation
  | url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.obj-667367722
  | id=nla.obj-667367722
  | access-date=13 August 2025
  | via=Trove
}}

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