NSW Labor will significantly reduce the burden of administrative tasks placed on our state’s teachers, beginning with a line-by-line audit of teachers’ administrative workloads.
Burdensome administrative workloads are eating away at precious learning time and pushing teachers out of the profession.
Reducing administration is a key component of Labor’s plan to address chronic teacher shortages and reverse falling student outcomes.
Administrative burdens & teacher shortage
Schools, teachers and principals are over-burdened with administrative tasks and bureaucratic processes.
Teachers and schools are subject to 219 policy documents requiring them to enforce compliance with a range of policies.
This leaves less teaching and learning time, and has seen teachers leaving the profession in droves.
Full-time teachers are working on average 150 per cent of their contracted working hours – or 60.1 hours per week – according to the December 2021 Australian Teacher Workforce Data report.
Ninety-two per cent of teachers believe that reducing administrative workloads is the best solution to addressing the teacher shortage, according to a surveyconducted by the NSW Parliament.
Labor’s plan
An elected Minns Labor Government will instruct the Department of Education to conduct a line-by-line audit of all administrative tasks teachers are required to do, to deliver a reduction of 5 hours of administrative work per week.
The review will look at ways to remove, simplify or digitise tasks, with a focus on culling administrative tasks that add no benefit to student outcomes.
This will increase teaching and learning time in our classrooms, and reduce the attrition rate of teachers.
Teacher shortage and declining education outcomes
Over 28,000 permanent teachers left NSW public schools between 2010 and 2021.
Between 2006 and 2018, NSW students have dropped from 6th to 23rd in reading, dropped from 9th to 31st in maths and dropped from 3rd to 23rd in science.
Chris Minns, NSW Labor Leader, said:
Teachers shouldn’t have to spend more time documenting a lesson than teaching it.”
“We will go line-by-line over every piece of admin that teachers are required to do and make sure that time will instead be spent on improving student outcomes.”
“Labor’s plan to reduce the bureaucratic burdens on our teachers goes to the core of the teacher shortage.
Prue Car, NSW Shadow Minister for Education, said:
“This is another necessary step to help solve the teacher shortage crisis that has grown under 12 years of Liberal-National Government.
“Burdensome administrative workloads are impacting learning time and pushing teachers out of the profession in droves. Ultimately, we see the impact of this in declining education outcomes.
“Teachers and parents both agree that teachers should be allowed to spend more time teaching – it’s the best outcome for our teachers and the best outcome for children.”