What are the principal associations up to?
This morning's front pager in the Advertiser is a real wake-up call as to what we can expect if the principal associations-backed ticket of AEU Presidential candidate Jan Webber is successful in the forthcoming AEU elections.
Essentially, the principals have gone on strike, refusing to advertise Round One vacancies in the 2008 placement process.
This is the round in which teachers in the Priority Placement Pool are matched first against vacancies.
The impression given by the Primary Principals Association, and splashed as a sub-heading across the Advertiser, is that this results in schools being forced to accept substandard staff.
This is an outrageous slander of the public education system and a despicable attack on teachers by a crew that wants to run the union!
It is worth restating the composition of the Priority Placement Pool from the current Enterprise Agreement:
2.2.1 The Priority Placement Pool would be centrally managed and contain:
2.2.1.1 Teachers with an approved Work Cover claim who need to be placed would be given a priority.
2.2.1.2 Permanent teachers who have an approved priority compassionate placement request….
2.2.1.3 Teachers who still hold a guaranteed right of return to the metropolitan area from the country….
2.2.1.4 Country teachers seeking transfers to metropolitan locations who are eligible…
2.2.1.5 Teachers who are eligible to transfer and are in at least their 4th year of continuous service in an Index of Educational Disadvantage Category 1 school
2.2.1.6 Teachers who are eligible to transfer and are in at least their 5th year of continuous service in an Index of Educational Disadvantage Category 2 school
2.2.1.7 Teachers who have been placed as involuntary PATS for a period of at least 4 years.
These seven categories of teachers together comprise a group of 350, only a few of whom are involved in underperformance issues.
But all teachers and all schools in the public system are now in doubt in relation to their quality because of this contemptuous action of the Primary Principals Association.
Principals who advertised some 700 vacancies for Round One in 2007 are deliberately withholding vacancies this year. Only 230 vacancies have been advertised, fewer than the number of teachers in the PPP.
Let us be clear about what the principal associations want.
Principal associations want to jettison the rights of permanent teachers to a placement.
They are happy to leave teachers forever in remote and difficult schools.
They made this clear in the latest edition of SAPPA News, where Glyn O'Brien, SAPPA President writes: “Currently there is an emphasis still on placement of permanent staff at the expense of true local selection.”
She adds, “SAPPA will continue to expect merit selection.”
This view was also expressed by secondary principals last year in a paper produced by their association's Human Resources sub-committee.
It is a view that means the abolition of the rights of permanent teachers and the opportunity for transfer dependent on the whim of a principal!
We know there is an entrenched culture of bullying both within DECS itself, and out in the schools.
This same group of principals, who aspire to lead the Australian Education Union in SA, are set to further entrench the capacity of principals to bully and intimidate staff by their opposition to the current selection process.
And they have no scruples in fostering a public perception of a “Second Class” public education system, to quote today's main Advertiser heading, in order to get their way.
This morning's front pager in the Advertiser is a real wake-up call as to what we can expect if the principal associations-backed ticket of AEU Presidential candidate Jan Webber is successful in the forthcoming AEU elections.
Essentially, the principals have gone on strike, refusing to advertise Round One vacancies in the 2008 placement process.
This is the round in which teachers in the Priority Placement Pool are matched first against vacancies.
The impression given by the Primary Principals Association, and splashed as a sub-heading across the Advertiser, is that this results in schools being forced to accept substandard staff.
This is an outrageous slander of the public education system and a despicable attack on teachers by a crew that wants to run the union!
It is worth restating the composition of the Priority Placement Pool from the current Enterprise Agreement:
2.2.1 The Priority Placement Pool would be centrally managed and contain:
2.2.1.1 Teachers with an approved Work Cover claim who need to be placed would be given a priority.
2.2.1.2 Permanent teachers who have an approved priority compassionate placement request….
2.2.1.3 Teachers who still hold a guaranteed right of return to the metropolitan area from the country….
2.2.1.4 Country teachers seeking transfers to metropolitan locations who are eligible…
2.2.1.5 Teachers who are eligible to transfer and are in at least their 4th year of continuous service in an Index of Educational Disadvantage Category 1 school
2.2.1.6 Teachers who are eligible to transfer and are in at least their 5th year of continuous service in an Index of Educational Disadvantage Category 2 school
2.2.1.7 Teachers who have been placed as involuntary PATS for a period of at least 4 years.
These seven categories of teachers together comprise a group of 350, only a few of whom are involved in underperformance issues.
But all teachers and all schools in the public system are now in doubt in relation to their quality because of this contemptuous action of the Primary Principals Association.
Principals who advertised some 700 vacancies for Round One in 2007 are deliberately withholding vacancies this year. Only 230 vacancies have been advertised, fewer than the number of teachers in the PPP.
Let us be clear about what the principal associations want.
Principal associations want to jettison the rights of permanent teachers to a placement.
They are happy to leave teachers forever in remote and difficult schools.
They made this clear in the latest edition of SAPPA News, where Glyn O'Brien, SAPPA President writes: “Currently there is an emphasis still on placement of permanent staff at the expense of true local selection.”
She adds, “SAPPA will continue to expect merit selection.”
This view was also expressed by secondary principals last year in a paper produced by their association's Human Resources sub-committee.
It is a view that means the abolition of the rights of permanent teachers and the opportunity for transfer dependent on the whim of a principal!
We know there is an entrenched culture of bullying both within DECS itself, and out in the schools.
This same group of principals, who aspire to lead the Australian Education Union in SA, are set to further entrench the capacity of principals to bully and intimidate staff by their opposition to the current selection process.
And they have no scruples in fostering a public perception of a “Second Class” public education system, to quote today's main Advertiser heading, in order to get their way.
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