The Department of Education will encourage workers to take a mid-career leap into education under a new plan to address the lack of maths, science and technology teachers in NSW schools.
It is also considering giving those mid-career recruits a fast-track to leadership jobs such as principalships.
The department is developing a long-term teaching workforce strategy to address concerns about a lack of teachers qualified in priority subjects, such as maths, and a shortage of teachers in disadvantaged and regional areas.
In its response to a parliamentary inquiry into the state’s schools, the department said it would finish developing a fast-track, mid-career entry program for people outside the teaching profession by the end of this year.
The program would focus on shortages in technology, maths and science and attempt to fill positions in rural and regional schools. Research by the Australian Mathematical Sciences Institute has found fewer than one in four students had a qualified maths teacher in junior high school.
Read more of Jordan Baker’s article in the Sydney Morning Herald (Nine Media paywall access required).
