Educational reforms: Impact on rural teachers

Abstract

In 1988, the Minister for Education and Youth Affairs commissioned two major reviews of the New South Wales public education system. The first of these reviews, the School-Centred Education report (Scott 1990) considered the organisational structure and administrative functions of personnel within the New South Wales Department of Education. The second review, the Report of the Committee of Review of New South Wales Schools (Carrick 1989) focussed on the development of a new Public Education Act which included the functions of schooling and the registration and accreditation of schools. Scott disclosed that there was a 'high level of dissatisfaction throughout the Department with the rigidity and impersonal nature of long-established staffing policies, practices and procedures' (Scott 1990: 96). Carrick (1989) focussed on the need for more adequate training of teachers for rural school positions (p. 115), the need to provide teacher induction, support and in-service education access, and the inappropriateness of 'across the board' recruitment. The report made a range of suggestions relating to the recruitment and staffing of rural schools based on submissions from teachers. Teachers faced many problems coping with geographical, cultural, social and professional isolation in rural areas. The high turnover of rural teachers was a major concern for remote communities who regarded staffing stability as an important factor in ensuring equality of educational opportunity (Carrick 1989:117). The introduction of rural education scholarships had already been proposed in 1988 to improve recruitment for rural schools. While these externally commissioned reviews on the New South Wales Department of School Education were proceeding, the Minister for Education and Youth Affairs initiated an internal review, the Rural Schools Plan (Metherell 1989), which addressed a number of the issues relating to staffing policies in rural schools raised in the Carrick report (1989). Under this plan, a number of initiatives, already in place, were activated. Additional executive teachers would be appointed to some Central Schools to give added leadership and experience to assist teaching principals with the supervision of infants and primary classes; the