Categories: NewsTeacher's Desk

More reasons to teach in the bush

Increased financial support for teachers taking up work in regional NSW will now be extended under a review of the incentives program.

<p>Even more teachers will now have access to incentives and pay bonuses&comma; with the NSW Government expanding its Rural and Remote Incentives Reform program&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Deputy Premier Paul Toole and Minister for Education Sarah Mitchell at the weekend announced &dollar;8 million of the initial &dollar;15 million incentives package would be used to extend the existing program to include temporary teachers and double the bonuses for teachers taking up a job in regional NSW&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Mr Toole said the Government was transforming the way teachers were incentivised in regional areas&comma; ensuring all staff were provided with the flexibility and financial support they needed&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>&OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;Making the decision to leave home and take up a teaching job in an unfamiliar town&comma; often away from family and friends&comma; isn’t easy&period; That’s why we’re expanding the most generous incentive system in the country&comma; giving temporary teachers support including an additional salary of up to &dollar;30&comma;000&comma; as well travel&comma; living and housing incentives&comma;” Mr Toole said&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>&OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;We want all teachers to feel comfortable to expand their horizons and consider relocating to the bush and we know once they get there&comma; they won’t look back&period;”<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Ms Mitchell said the additional access to incentives for temporary teachers were crucial to encouraging more teachers to work in regional NSW&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>&OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;Temporary staff are vital to our system &&num;8211&semi; they provide flexibility to schools and staff and it’s important we support them in the same way we support other staff in rural and remote areas&comma;” Ms Mitchell said&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>&OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;We will also double the teacher recruitment funding from &dollar;10&comma;000 to &dollar;20&comma;000&comma; giving eligible teachers an additional &dollar;20&comma;000 on top of their teaching salaries to teach in the regions&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>&OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;We have the most generous incentive system in Australia&comma; however over time it has grown in complexity&period; This is the first time we have inspected all aspects of the system to make it fair and flexible&comma; allowing teachers to create a package that works best for them and their circumstances&period;”<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>The Rural and Remote Incentives Review included recommendations that support the existing commitments to regional NSW under the Rural and Remote Education Strategy&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>The NSW Government commitments made to regional schools include improved access to technology infrastructure&comma; increased access to early childhood education and a focus on strengthening leadership development programs for teachers will enable community growth and equity of opportunity across NSW&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>The NSW Government has funded a &dollar;125 million Teacher Supply Strategy that is focused on ensuring the right teachers&comma; with the right qualifications are working in places students need them&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>The full <a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;education&period;nsw&period;gov&period;au&sol;about-us&sol;strategies-and-reports&sol;teacher-supply-strategy">strategy<&sol;a> can be viewed on the education website&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;

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NSW Department of Education

This story was written by the NSW Department of Education. School News shares it with permission.

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