A policy that was originally introduced to give principals autonomy in decision making has been described as an "abomination" and a "travesty" by the NSW Teachers Federation.
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According to the NSW Department of Education's website, the 'local schools, local decisions' policy was introduced in 2012 to "give NSW government schools more authority to make local decisions about how best to meet the needs of their students".
It was intended to give principals the ability to appoint their chosen candidates to advertised roles at their schools. During hearings at last week's NSW Teachers Federation inquiry, Murrumbidgee High School deputy principal Richard Wiseman of how the policy had effectively left rural schools competing against coastal schools for teachers.
The situation had left Mr Wiseman unable to fill a vacancy despite four attempts to advertise.
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Riverina organiser of the Teachers Federation, John Pratt, told The Daily Advertiser the policy has re-directed teaching resources into administration.
"It's an abomination," Mr Pratt said.
"Is there anything good about [the policy]? Well, it can mean that if a principal sees a drain that needs fixing that can be done more immediately."
Mr Pratt explained that in a lot of cases, schools have hired a "business manager" to address the increase to administrative work that has been "dumped on the principals" by the policy.
"That means funding that could be going to students through learning programs, is actually going to business managers," Mr Pratt said.
"The hiring of business managers by schools, at their own expense, to do the extra administrative work that was once done by [...] the department [of education] but is now dumped on principals and teachers by [local schools, local decisions], is the ultimate travesty."
To address the concern, the federation is calling on the department to re-implement a centralised staffing system.
A spokesperson for the department said it can still fill vacancies "alternately by a central appointment".
"Where a principal has a local choice, they may choose to advertise the position externally to fill through open merit, or request the position be filled using one of the centrally maintained employment lists," they said.
"The introduction of the Local Schools, Local Decisions reform did increase staffing flexibility for principals, particularly through creating additional positions using flexible funding."
The spokesperson said there would also be a review of local schools, local decisions next year to "alleviate some of the administrative burdens on principals as a result of the initial policy".