By Lucy Carroll
NSW teachers will no longer need to take professional development courses in four core areas including curriculum delivery, while the state’s schools regulator will scrap the accreditation process for thousands of training courses.
The overhaul of professional development programs has been welcomed by the teachers’ union and private school sectors but slammed by critics who warn it will erode quality assurance and risks undermining the government’s push for evidence-based teaching.
More than 170,000 teachers across the state were told late last week of changes to the 100 hours of professional development they must complete every five years.
The state’s education authority has scrapped the accreditation process for teacher professional development courses. Credit: Steven Siewert
Under the new regime, teachers will no longer complete 50 hours of accredited courses in mandated areas of curriculum delivery and assessment, disability, mental health and Aboriginal education.
Principals and teachers will instead choose the training courses they deem appropriate for their school. At least 100 hours of training will still be mandated over a five-year period.
The NSW Education Standards Authority (NESA) will abolish the accreditation system, which has given some 6,000 courses and 200 providers the green light in the past three years. Instead, course operators can apply to be added to a “recognised provider list”, meaning at least one of their courses must align with the Australian Professional Standards for Teachers.
The former accreditation system meant providers had to undergo regulatory checks and list evidence-based teaching practices and learning goals.
NSW Education Minister Prue Car said the changes will bring the state in line with the rest of the country and remove “red tape that was adding to teachers’ administrative workload”.
“Professional development shouldn’t be about box ticking, it should be supporting our expert educators to enhance their practice,” she said.
David Browne, head of the Professional Teachers’ Council NSW, said he was concerned that phasing out accreditation would “silo professional learning within school systems”.
“We really appreciated the checks and balances accreditation gave, and removing that will potentially make it more complex for teachers and schools to select quality courses,” Browne said.
Under the changes, teachers will not be forced to complete evaluation forms for programs they complete.
‘No quality assurance’
Dr Simon Crook, a former physics teacher who runs training in science education, said respecting teachers’ professionalism was vital, but ditching course accreditation “means there is no quality assurance to protect against charlatan providers”.
“In fact, it could increase teacher workload as teachers will need to log all non-accredited hours themselves. There is also a fear [that] some schools’ tight budgets will no longer allocate funds to pay for teachers attending high-quality professional development. In addition, this goes against the recent move to more evidence-based instruction by having no enforcement of course standards.”
Others flagged concerns that educators will be left in the dark about which courses are the most trusted.
NSW Education Minister Prue Car in question time last week.Credit: News Corp Australia
“What I worry about is anyone can now go and run a professional development course,” said one teacher who spoke anonymously in order to speak freely. “Everyone wants quality teaching and learning, and I am not sure this achieves this.”
In an email to teachers, NESA said the improved system came after Car asked it “to review and reduce unnecessary workload pressures” and ensure accreditation processes are “commensurate with the respect and standing the profession deserves”.
Car said “restrictive requirements” had limited what teachers could count towards their 100 hours. An advisory panel will be set up to oversee the professional development process, and NESA will conduct random audits.
Professional development will need to be aligned with the Australian Professional Standards for Teachers.
NSW Teachers Federation deputy president Amber Flohm said the union welcomed the “significant reduction to the administrative workload of teachers and a rightful return to professional respect and trust”.
Explicit and evidence-backed instruction, promoted by the NSW Education Department, is the teaching method used by multiple top-performing schools. Last week, new NAPLAN results revealed that one in three students failed literacy and numeracy tests.
Accountability removed
NSW opposition education spokeswoman Sarah Mitchell said the decision removed accountability from training programs.
“There will be no way for schools or teachers to know if the courses they are taking are high quality and evidence-based. This will almost certainly lead to teaching fads returning to our schools,” she said.
Association of Independent Schools of NSW chief executive Margery Evans said the decision gave schools more flexibility over professional development pathways.
“The decision removes a requirement, introduced in late 2020, forcing teachers to choose half of their hours from a narrow band of priority areas to maintain their accreditation.”
“The restrictive categorisation put pressure on schools and distracted them from focusing their staff growth and development in the areas of greatest need for each school’s context.”
A Grattan Institute report last year revealed that teachers were being left to fend for themselves in the classroom, creating lessons from scratch and using social media to find teaching materials.
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