“I don’t think change is as simple as going back to seven to 12 or you stay the same,” he said.

Mr Foster said they were the “two extremes” of the argument and many issues existed in between.

“If the complaint is ‘I want to teach seven to 12’, well you can teach 7 to 12,” he said.

Mr Foster was responding to claims that Dubbo College teachers have a hard time teaching “across” the three campuses, stunting chances of promotion.

Dubbo Teachers’ Association councillor, Narelle Grant, who is also a Dubbo primary school teacher, said there had been an exodus of teachers from the college.

“Some of the reasons teachers leave Dubbo College are it is almost impossible to gain promotion in other schools when you do not have current seven to 12 teaching experience,” she said.

“Teachers are supposed to be able to teach across more than one campus, but this is difficult and discouraged by management.”

But according to Mr Foster most teachers who wanted to instruct on different campuses were given the chance. At the end of last year 17 teachers applied to work at both junior and senior campuses, Mr Foster said eight were successful, four weren’t and five were relocated permanently to a different campus.

“In a staff of 170 there were only, six or seven, who didn’t get what they wanted,” he said.

“It comes back to what is feasible and what is not.I’m not saying we don’t have problems but I think a lot of them can be addressed.”

Charged with addressing these problems is the community consultation committee, incorporating various school stakeholders including members of the Parents and Citizens Association and the teachers’ federation.

Ms Grant said the committee lacked independence and its report would be a “fait accompli”.

“There needs to be a completely independent review outside of the federation, the Aboriginal Education Consultative Group, parents’ groups and the Department of Education,” she said.

“The people in authority have known about the problems from day one.”