Nothing is more important than the education of our children.
Everyone should have access to a quality education. One that helps us reach our full potential and gives us the best possible start in life.
However, after 12 years of Liberal Government, our education system was in crisis and teachers were leaving the profession in droves.
Poor pay and an ever-increasing administrative workload led to chronic staff shortages and 10,000 merged or collapsed classes across the state everyday.
40 per cent or 24,000 of our teachers were left languishing on temporary contracts.
For the first time in history, teacher resignations were higher than retirements.
While this cannot be fixed overnight, we are making significant progress.
Since being elected in March 2023, my Government has been committed to rebuilding public education in NSW.
We have scraped the wages cap, delivering teachers the largest pay rise in a generation.
We have also given more than 16,000 temporary teachers and support staff permanent roles which has seen a 25 per cent reduction in teacher vacancies.
This year, teacher shortages are at a three-year-low and about half a million hours of lost learning has been returned.
This means improved educational outcomes for our kids.
The best way to improve our students' outcomes is to make sure there is a qualified teacher in front of them in the classroom, doing what they do best - teaching.
We know there is still much more to do, but we are making progress to rebuild the NSW education system to give our kids the best education possible.
Parents can be reassured that we are working hard to fix the teacher shortage crisis we inherited from the previous Liberal Government.