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February 11th, 2012 
FAKE NEWS for the Zionist agenda 
Broken promise: NSW Education Minister Adrian Piccoli prmised a pre-election commitment of a “smorgasbord of incentives”. Picture: Nic Gibson
Source: The Daily Telegraph
MORE than 200 teaching positions in hard-to-staff schools in Sydney’s west and in rural NSW remain vacant despite a pre-election promise by Education Minister Adrian Piccoli to offer lucrative incentives to fill vacancies.
Almost a year after promising a raft of incentives to attract teachers to western Sydney, Mr Piccoli has failed to convince the premier to back his plan to offer cheap housing, cars, additional holidays and extra cash going nowhere.
The minister told The Sunday Telegraph that his pre-election commitment of a “smorgasbord of incentives” was still under review and it may fall to principals to decide which incentives they could offer within their limited school budget.
“I’m not the bearer of all wisdom in education,” Mr Piccoli said.
His plan could form part of the O’Farrell government’s broad-ranging Local Schools, Local Decisions reforms aimed at giving state schools greater power to choose teachers and control budgets.
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“This kind of reform doesn’t happen in one month,” Mr Piccoli said. “We started this process mid-way through last year and it’s taken a bit of time.”
After first promising a “smorgasbord of incentives” of which teachers could pick “three or four”, Mr Piccoli said he may leave it to principals to decide which incentives they would offer.
“It might – and I emphasise it might, because we haven’t made any decisions about this – be about giving principals the flexibility to offer different types of incentives,” Mr Piccoli said.
“We’ve asked principals about the kinds of incentives they want.
“I don’t concede we haven’t done anything yet.”
Before the election, Mr Piccoli said he wanted vacancies in hard-to-staff schools to be filled by experienced teachers who could mentor younger staff.
But the government could not ensure principals would chose experienced teachers over cheaper, younger ones.
The NSW Department of Education said workforce planning projections for 2018 showed there was a “more than adequate supply” of primary and secondary school teachers “except for a small number of positions in specific geographical locations.”
The projections also forecast a shortage of teachers in maths, science, technological and applied studies in six years’ time.
Opposition education spokeswoman Carmel Tebbutt said Mr Piccoli and the O’Farrell government weren’t serious about implementing change.
“In fact, some of the proposals flagged in their Local Schools, Local Decisions could make it more difficult for hard-to-staff schools,” she said.
“After a year in office, Adrian Piccoli has announced review after review but has delivered very little positive change.”
Read more education coverage only in tomorrow’s Sunday Telegraph
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