Public school teachers in NSW have had 50 hours of their administrative burden slashed this year, thanks to the NSW Government.
Minister for Education and Early Learning Sarah Mitchell said the Government’s Quality Time program to cut red tape and reduce unnecessary admin burden has also saved principals 212 hours and school-based non-teaching staff 71 hours.
“I’m proud we’ve exceeded our target to reduce the administrative burden on our principals, teachers and support staff by 20 per cent,” Ms Mitchell said.
“Not only have we saved teachers time by scrapping unnecessary tasks, simplifying school budget processes and providing quality-assured teaching resources, we’re also giving teachers more time to prepare quality lessons from next year to support the new curriculum rollout.”
In addition, a new online tool – ‘Q+’ – will save public school teachers even more time by streamlining their accreditation, professional development and mandatory training into a digital ‘one-stop-shop’.
“Teachers told us they were frustrated and found it time consuming to deal with at least three different systems to manage this. Now with Q+ which seamlessly links all this together, teachers can at a glance see their accreditation and professional development, as well as get handy reminders,” Ms Mitchell said.
“Although we’ve met our targets, there are still really exciting time-saving initiatives coming to schools in 2023 and beyond, as Quality Time remains a priority for the Government.”
Other programs saving teachers time include:
- Universal Resources Hub and curriculum resources, which the Grattan Institute has estimated will save teachers three or more hours per week on finding quality materials to prepare engaging lessons once the roll out is complete.
- Changing accreditation requirements in consultation with NESA to remove duplicated processes.
- Improvements to mandatory training through more efficient and effective e-learning.
- Streamlining data collection, including new online forms.
- Online enrolment and parent payment systems.
- Simplifying school budgets for ease of use, with more changes coming in 2023.
- Employing additional Admin Officers and Asset Support Officers to support schools.
