The Minister for Education and the Deputy Premier have joined together to assure rural and remote communities suffering through the drought that they are not about to lose their school teachers.
The Ministers, Sarah Mitchell and John Barilaro committed the Department of Education to maintain teacher numbers in drought-affected schools to ensure continuity and stability for regional and remote students.
Mr Barilaro said the commitment was made despite more families’ relocating out of regional areas.
He said that in the past, if a school saw a decline in student enrolments, the total number of staff in a school would decrease.
“This drought is relentless, but that shouldn’t mean students whose families choose to stay in the regions should have the quality of their education affected,” Mr Barilaro said.
Ms Mitchell said 220 schools will have their entitlement guaranteed by default, with a further 36 schools encouraged to apply for staffing entitlement maintenance.
“This Government is passionate about ensuring every child, no matter where they are from, has access to top quality teachers,” Ms Mitchell said.
“Attracting and retaining good teachers in regional areas is difficult enough, so it is critical that we maintain staffing numbers now more than ever to make sure our country kids aren’t missing out on having the opportunity to be the best they can be.
Ms Mitchell said support for staff in regional areas would continue when the drought breaks.