There are 49,000 permanently employed teachers in the NSW government school system.
They are clearly so close to perfection, and achieving such a high standard of excellence, that only 5 were dismissed last year for poor performance. That’s about 0.01%. Not only that, but less than 100 were put on performance improvement programs – that’s 0.2%.
More teachers (19) were actually dismissed for sexual misconduct than for poor performance.
So I guess its congratulations to the NSW education system for having such great teachers, and I suppose that must be reflected in the results that students coming through the education system are achieving.
Or more likely, the standards are set low, and the barriers to dealing effectively with poor performing teachers too high, so that all except the very bottom of the barrel, or more particularly, a few unlucky enough to have a principal determined enough to jump through all the hoops, or dumb enough not to be able to weasel their way out from the discipline process.
Of course, the lack of effective performance management of teachers and discipline wouldn’t have anything to do with:
- education departments being full of ex (and often failed) teachers
- the strength of the teachers’ unions
I just think it defies logic that only 5 teachers in NSW were considered bad enough to be sacked for being shit teachers in a year, and only 100 bad enough to be put through formal performance management processes. I would think a few hundred and a couple of thousand respectively should be closer to the mark. Just guessing.
Education of our children demands a good standard of teachers. I would suggest that a lot is being let slip in this regard, and that the system retains many poor teachers who do not belong in a classroom in front of students.
