Della Bosca takes schools and TAFE colleges to the brink

Dr Kaye said: “The Greens congratulate teachers for taking the difficult decision to strike against the destruction of the priority transfer system and downgrading the qualifications of TAFE educators.

“Education Minister John Della Bosca has fallen for the rhetoric of competition at any cost.

“His changes to the teacher transfer system will leave many rural and regional and hard to staff schools without fully qualified staff and with much larger classes.

“He is opening the flood gates to a Victorian-style open competition staffing system that is a proven failure.

“Minister Della Bosca’s lowering of TAFE teacher qualifications is a short-sighted cost cutting exercise that insults professional educators and undermines the quality of training in NSW.

“The Teachers Federation has repeatedly offered to negotiate a settlement. It is the Minister and his Director General who have been intransigent.

“Neither John Della Bosca nor Michael Coutts-Trotter have been teachers. They seem to not understand the consequences of their plans.

“Almost every previous NSW education minister in the past two decades has successfully negotiated a transfer system, without forcing the union into strike action.

“The Greens call on the Minister to enter into immediate talks with the Teachers Federation and come up with a solution that protects hard to staff schools and TAFE teacher professionalism,” Dr Kaye said.

For more information:    John Kaye 0407 195 455