Schools job cuts don鈥檛 add up
The O鈥橣arrell Government鈥檚 plans to cut hundreds of jobs out of education will hit the operation of schools and implementation of learning programs, at a time the government has found a spare billion dollars in the budget, says the Public Service Association.
The State Government has begun to roll out its planned 1800 job cuts in education, with nearly 400 to be cut from Department of Education policy and support roles in suburban and regional areas.
Cutting the jobs in the Department of Education that support schools will force principals to stop focusing on educational outcomes and undertake work previously done by the department, said 色狼社区Assistant General Secretary Steve Turner.
鈥淚t will see increase red tape at the school level, duplicate work across the whole system, undermine professional learning for education staff, interrupt the implementation of new areas of learning curriculum and lead to an increasingly casualised workforce,鈥 said Mr Turner.
鈥淣o-one believes for a second that if you cut out policy and support, it won鈥檛 affect learning on the front line.
鈥淭he government has made no case for the value or efficiency of cutting these jobs out of education.
鈥淚t is arbitrarily putting people out of work and increasing pressure on teachers, principals and support staff in schools.
鈥淚t will force principals to stop focusing on educational outcomes and undertake work previously done by the department.鈥
鈥淭he O鈥橣arrell Government has just 鈥榝ound鈥 a spare billion dollars putting the state budget well in to the black 鈥 it can afford to continue properly funding education and education jobs,鈥 said Mr Turner.
鈥淏ut it is taking an ideological position of cutting money out of schools, while wasting millions of dollars on unnecessary changes like renaming road signs and renaming the education department.
鈥淲hat sort of government takes money away from disabled children getting to school while spending on new road signs?鈥
CONTACT: Steve Turner 0418 675 564 / Jane Garcia 0434 489 533