It’s clear this Government has run out of ideas and its best days are behind them, with an announcement today by the Education Minister on another syllabus change – it’s 20^th  announcement since 2018.

Despite the 20 announcements, a report released by the McKell Institute yesterday confirmed that New South Wales is going backwards when it comes to education outcomes.
 
International PISA results show that between 2006 and 2018, NSW students dropped from 6th to 23rd in reading, dropped from 9th to 31st in maths and dropped from 3rd to 23rd in science.
 
In fact, NSW had the largest decline of any Australian jurisdiction in PISA reading results between 2000 and 2018.
 
This year’s NAPLAN results also showed the literacy levels of teenage boys had fallen to record lows with one in six failing to reach the minimum standard in grammar and punctuation and about 12 per cent struggled to read at a basic level.

Today there’s another syllabus announcement, yet the Perrottet Government has failed to recruit enough teachers to actually teach it.
 
There are currently 2,963 teacher vacancies across NSW and a NSW Parliament survey shows that 60 per cent of NSW teachers are planning to leave their jobs in the next 5 years.
 
After 12 years, the NSW Liberals just don’t get it.
 
They have presided over a chronic teacher shortage, which has meant merged and cancelled classes, and students falling behind in national and international rankings when it comes to literacy, numeracy and science.
 
Another four years will mean more of the same.
 
A list of syllabus announcements by the NSW Government since 2018:

1. 14 May 2018 – Curriculum Review launched
2. 24 August 2018 – Public consultation of curriculum review has started
3. September 2018 – Terms of Reference revealed
4. April 2019 – Consultation review released
5. 22 October 2019 – Interim Curriculum report released. ‘Back to basics’ plan for new NSW schools curriculum
6. 23 October 2019 – Curriculum to include more trades subjects
7. 23 June 2020 – Masters review released
8. 14 February 2021 – Expert teachers to help curriculum reform
9. 23 March 2021 – K-2 English and Maths curriculum revealed
10. 19 June 2021 – $196 million for implementation of curriculum reform
11. 2 August 2021 – English and Maths syllabuses released for public consultation
12. 15 November 2021 – English and Maths Yr1 and 2 curriculum
13. 18 March 2022 – Year 3-10 English and Maths curriculum revealed
14. 21 March 2022 – AUSLAN joins NSW curriculum
15. 16 August 2022 – Music and Dance curriculum consultation
16. 7 October 2022 – Extra 30mins release time for teachers to learn curriculum
17. 17 October 2022 – Aboriginal Languages syllabus revealed
18. 24 October 2022 – STEM syllabus revealed
19. 21 November 2022 – Technology syllabus revealed
20. 5 December 2022 – English syllabus announcement

It’s time for a fresh start for our education system in New South Wales.

NSW Labor has begun to outline a comprehensive plan to fix the long term problems in our education system, reverse the decline in student outcomes and to make a teaching career in New South Wales more attractive by:

• Cutting 5 hours of admin work per week so teachers spend more time in the clasroom;
• Converting 10,000 existing casual teachers to permanent to give them the security of job they are asking for to stay in teaching;
• Creating better teacher pathways to ensure our graduates end up in New South Wales schools;
• Banning the use of mobile phones in schools to reduce distraction and improve education outcomes; and
• Removing the Perrottet Government’s wages cap to make the profession competitive again.

CHRIS MINNS MP
NSW LABOR LEADER

PRUE CAR MP
NSW DEPUTY LABOR LEADER
NSW SHADOW MINISTER FOR EDUCATION