The future of Dubbo College looks promising according to NSW Teachers Federation deputy president Gary Zadkovich.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
Mr Zadkovich was in Dubbo yesterday and spoke positively about the way in which education minister Verity Firth’s chief of staff had been liaising with the Teachers Federation on the issue.
After meeting with teachers in Dubbo he said it remained clear a majority of teachers would prefer to have a college model based on a 7-12 structure.
“We are quite pleased that she (Minister Firth) not only came out here and listened to teachers first hand but she’s also called for the department to provide all the relevant data about how the college has been fairing over the last few years,” Mr Zadkovich said.
“She has instructed the DET to extend the current agreement around the staffing and resource arrangements until the end of January next year.
Both the minister and the department of education have confirmed the college and the Teachers Federation have extended a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) to allocate teachers and executive staff to campuses to provide equity in teacher access to teaching Year 7-12.
“The NSW Teachers Federation accepted an offer to extend the memorandum, which covers staffing and resourcing of multi-campus colleges, until January 2010,” a DET spokesperson said last week.
“The minister has asked the education department to extend the MOU until the end of this year and to continue discussions with the NSW Teachers Federation on behalf of the Dubbo College teachers about the issues they have raised,” a
spokesperson for Minister Firth said yesterday.
According to a DET spokesperson the Regional Director Carole McDiarmid has reaffirmed that she is always available to discuss any issues which teachers, students, parents and members of the community raise, including ideas about Dubbo Secondary College.
On September 30 the DET and the Teachers Federation will be meeting to continue discussions on the multi-campus college industrial agreement.
“In that meeting I’m also wanting to pursue a process that can move along the Dubbo college debate,” Mr Zadkovich said.
“Teachers now have better hope that they are being listened to rather than being dismissed as a group of people who are just complaining for the sake of complaining,” Mr Zadkovich said.