Improved outcomes for students in the bush will be driven by stronger support for teachers working outside NSW’s major cities under the NSW Government’s action plan for rural and remote education.

The NSW Government will develop the teacher housing strategy to cut red tape for applicants and fix maintenance issues faster as part of the new, targeted response to teacher shortages in rural and remote NSW.

More than 20 regional schools will also get priority support for recruiting teachers, while staff in rural and remote NSW will receive regular in-person wellbeing sessions in a bid to retain more teachers in some of our most isolated communities.

The measures are part of the NSW Government’s commitment to revive the 2021 Rural and Remote Education Strategy, after the Auditor General found it had failed to deliver under the former government due to a “lack of action”.

The three key target areas under the action plan are: improving teacher housing, building better connections with isolated staff, and expanding staffing support for schools.

These priority areas were established following consultation with representatives of teachers, principals, P&Cs, the NSW Aboriginal Education Consultative Group and the Isolated Children’s Parents Association.

New initiatives under the NSW Government’s 2024 Rural and Remote Education Implementation Plan include:

• Developing a teacher housing strategy that addresses projected supply and demand
• Reducing housing refurbishment timeframes
• Streamlining processes for principals and teachers
• Delivering face-to-face wellbeing and connection sessions for staff in rural and remote NSW
• Expanding priority recruitment support to include an additional 22 regional, rural and remote schools.

The NSW Government will track the implementation of the initiatives and measure their success to ensure they are delivering meaningful support, which the Auditor General found did not occur under the former government.

Deputy Premier and Minister for Education and Early Learning Prue Car said:

“We’re committed to ensuring every child in NSW has access to a high-quality public education, no matter where they live.

“Ensuring we have the quality teachers we need in regional, rural and remote schools is essential to lifting student outcomes, which is why we are focussed on attracting more wonderful teachers to these schools and supporting them to stay.

“Unlike the Nationals and Liberals, our Government has a real and meaningful response to teacher shortages in regional NSW.”