The O’Farrell Government’s 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 PSA Assistant General Secretary Steve Turner.

“It 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,” said Mr Turner.

“No-one believes for a second that if you cut out policy and support, it won’t affect learning on the front line.

“The government has made no case for the value or efficiency of cutting these jobs out of education.

“It is arbitrarily putting people out of work and increasing pressure on teachers, principals and support staff in schools.

“It will force principals to stop focusing on educational outcomes and undertake work previously done by the department.”

“The O’Farrell Government has just ‘found’ a spare billion dollars putting the state budget well in to the black – it can afford to continue properly funding education and education jobs,” said Mr Turner.

“But 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.

“What sort of government takes money away from disabled children getting to school while spending on new road signs?”

CONTACT: Steve Turner 0418 675 564 / Jane Garcia 0434 489 533