The Federal Government has announced the country’s first national system of pay rewards for results in Australia’s education system.

 

The initiative is expected to cover 25,000 eligible teachers across the education sector and reward up to 10% of the country’s teaching staff.

 

The announcement is part of Labor’s $425 million promise to provide bonus payment to eligible teachers over the next four years and is expected to deliver $8,100 to experienced teachers who achieve high results while $5,400 per teacher will be allocated to teachers in the first years of their careers who achieve high results according to NAPLAN requisites. 

 

The methods used to judge teacher eligibility will be undertaken by the Australian Teacher Performance Management Principles and Procedures
 
It is expected to include a range of evidence such as:

  • Lesson observations
  • Student performance data (including NAPLAN and school based information that can show the valued added by particular teachers)
  • Parental feedback
  • Teacher qualifications and professional development undertaken.

 
The Principles and Procedures will build on the first national Professional Standards for Teachers outlined by the Federal Government earlier this year.

 

The Federal scheme has drawn criticism from the Australian Education Union, who has accused the system as being misguided and not a lasting solution to keeping high quality teachers in their field.

 

The announcement of the Reward for Great Teachers comes as the majority of Victorian schools have refused to participate in a trial for state based performance pay rewards.

 

In an article published by The Age, findings show that the Victorian Education Department failed to persuade a required 25 schools to join a pilot program that would see the best-performing 30% of teachers receive a bonus of up to $6800.

 

The state program only managed to join up five schools for the program, with the majority of schools fearing that such a rewards program would pit teachers against one another.