New cash incentives of up to $4,000 will be offered to NSW public school teachers, in a bid to encourage more to gain national Highly Accomplished and Lead Teacher (HALT) accreditation.
Nationals' Minister for Education and Early Learning Sarah Mitchell said HALT accreditation recognises highly effective, innovative, and exemplary teaching practice, and enables all NSW teachers to access salaries of up to $120,000.
"We know the quality of teachers across NSW is world-class. We want to make it as easy as possible for our best teachers to be recognised and remunerated for their impact," Ms Mitchell said.
"There are already 310 HALTs in NSW, but we have an ambitious goal to increase the number to at least 2,500 by 2025. I am thrilled that we are on track to meet this target, with almost 600 new teachers signing up since we streamlined the process last year.
"These new incentives will attract even more teachers to put their hand up and gain recognition for their work."
The new HALT incentives include:
• $2,000 one-off payment upon successful completion of HALT module 1
• $2,000 one-off payment upon successful completion of HALT module 2.
"Importantly, HALT-accredited teachers will form a talent pool for potential selection in the NSW Liberal and Nationals' Rewarding Excellence in Teaching pathway - which will offer our best teachers salaries of up to $152,000 to keep them in the classroom," Ms Mitchell said.
The new incentives will be automatically paid to teachers who undertake HALT accreditation under the new streamlined policy, which was released in 2022.
The new incentives will be in addition to a $7,000 pay rise, which will now come into effect immediately after the teacher finalises their HALT accreditation. Until now, the pay rise has been subject to regular salary band progression, meaning teachers had to wait up to two years before they would receive the boost.
Teachers can register to complete their HALT accreditation at the NESA website: https://educationstandards.nsw.edu.au/wps/portal/nesa/teacher-accreditation/apply/higher-levels
Following the NSW Nationals' commitment, Australian Education Ministers set a target of 10,000 HALTs across the country as part of the National Teacher Workforce Action Plan, which also adopted the NSW proposal to introduce new HALT specialisations in areas including mathematics and classroom management.
