The Minns Labor Government is exceeding its commitment to convert more than 16,000 temporary teachers and support staff to permanent positions, delivering on one of its signature election promises.
The commitment aims to turn around the workforce crisis in NSW public schools, which last year saw a record 1,854 teachers resign.
Some teachers who were considering leaving the profession are now staying thanks to the initiative, according to feedback given to the NSW Department of Education.
In just six months, more than 16,700 temporary teachers and support staff accepted a permanent contract at their current school, exceeding the Government’s expectations and moving ahead with the goal of improving education outcomes for students in the state’s public schools.
Under the first tranche of offers, some 10,000 teachers were offered permanent roles, with almost 9,000 accepting a permanent position so far.
Some 7,700 temporary school support staff have also accepted a permanent role, which goes above the Minns Labor Government’s election commitment to deliver 6,000 of these roles.
Work is now underway on preparing for the next tranche of offers.
This work reverses the decade of systemic casualisation of the teaching workforce by the former Liberal National Government, where the number of temporary teachers exploded from 11,700 in 2011 to more than 24,000 in 2023.
When the Minns Labor Government came to office, only about 60 per cent of the teaching workforce had permanent and stable employment.
The OECD recently released a damning report into the former Government’s record in education, stating that “the high proportion of temporary contracts” caused “adverse effects for schools, teachers and students”.
In its report, the OECD also found casualisation was “a barrier to retaining graduate teachers”, negatively affecting their motivation, and was one of the reasons behind the “growing number of newly qualified teachers leaving the profession”.
Deputy Premier and Minister for Education and Early Learning Prue Car said:
“After just over six months in office not only are we delivering on our commitment to make thousands of temporary teachers and support staff permanent – we are going even further."
“We have exceeded our expectations on where we thought we would be in our efforts to provide job security to temporary teachers and staff."
“I am so pleased that an overwhelming majority of 10,000 offers we have made to teachers so far have been accepted."
“Bringing job security back to teaching is just one way we are restoring pride in the profession and keeping our best teachers in front of classrooms."
“As we continue to provide more permanent roles in schools, I look forward to providing more teachers and support staff the certainty they need to make teaching their life’s work and make long-term plans like applying for a mortgage or putting down roots."
