An initiative to boost maths teachers across regional, rural and remote public schools has kicked off with the launch of a teacher retraining program.

The program will cover course fees for Master, Graduate Diploma or Graduate Certificate for current teachers to retrain as a maths teacher.

Minister for Education and Early Learning Sarah Mitchell said the Mathematics Teacher Retraining Program would reduce barriers for teachers and boost expertise in regional classrooms.

“To be a maths teacher you need a major or minor in pure or applied mathematics in a bachelor/postgraduate qualification, which can be difficult to obtain while employed fulltime, making it hard for existing teachers to become qualified maths teachers,” Ms Mitchell said.

“The government is making it easier for our teachers in the country to retrain and keep that valuable expertise in their local schools.”

Initial teacher education providers would develop innovative and flexible courses specifically for the program to ensure teachers did not spend unnecessary hours retraining.

“Key to faster retraining is recognising teachers’ existing experience so they can retrain as quickly as possible,” Ms Mitchell said.

The Teacher Retraining Grants for partner providers open for applications on Tuesday 19 April 2022 and will close on Tuesday 17 May 2022. It is expected that the pilot would start in early 2023 with an initial cohort of approximately 40 teachers.

The Mathematics Teacher Retraining Program is part of the $125 million Teacher Supply Strategy, a multi-pronged response to attracting, developing and retaining teachers.

Since the 10-year strategy was launched five months ago, substantial progress has been made, including:

• More than 3,000 expressions of interest for the Beyond NSW Program with 150 applications in the final stages of assessment and approval with the first recruits expected in schools by the end of 2022.
• The first 50 participants in the Mid-Career Transition to Teaching Program have started their studies and will be in schools in the second half of the year, and 25 more to join them in 2023.
• The first 50 FASTstream participants in schools already as part of a program accelerating high-quality teachers and graduates to leadership positions in regional schools, and 50 more to join them in 2023.