Media Release - APPA Cautious on Teacher Bonuses

The Prime Minister, Treasurer and Minister for School Education today jointly announced new funding for a national system of pay bonuses for teachers. In responding to this announcement, APPA recognises that the teaching workforce is the backbone of our nation’s schools and it is only appropriate that teachers be recognised and rewarded for the commitment they bring, and the hard work they do, every day in the classroom.

However, we have strong concerns particularly around elevating the importance of NAPLAN results in judging a teacher’s individual performance at the expense of other ways by which to assess teacher effectiveness.

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APPA's Media Release:

The Australian Primary Principals Association (APPA) today cautiously welcomed the announcement by the Prime Minister, Deputy Prime Minister and Treasurer, and the Minister for School Education to provide new funding to start the delivery of Australia’s first national system of pay bonuses for approximately 25,000 teachers around Australia.

APPA President, Norm Hart, said of the association’s position: “We of course welcome any investment made in our nation’s education and an additional $425 million over the next 4 years is a significant investment. The teaching workforce is the backbone of our nation’s schools and it is only appropriate that they be recognised and rewarded for their commitment and the hard work they do every day in the class room.”

Mr Hart said that while supporting the principle of more money for school teachers, questions remained over the value in rewarding individual teachers for their performance in the class room.

“While APPA recognises that the Government has sought to set a number of indicators and sources of evidence which can be used to assess a teacher’s performance, we remain concerned that a truly objective assessment of a teacher’s performance is still missing.”

In particular, APPA expresses strong concern that elevating the importance of NAPLAN results in assessing a teacher’s individual performance.

“NAPLAN gives an effective snapshot of the academic attainment of students at a point in time. But we remain concerned that problems can arise from using national tests when the stakes are high. Having NAPLAN tests dictate a teacher’s bonus payment in any way only increases the likelihood that greater focus will be put onto NAPLAN test results at the expense of other ways of judging teacher effectiveness.

“It is important to recognise there are many complex and overlapping factors that shape an individual classroom’s performance. These need to be taken into account when measuring the performance of individual teachers. ”

The Australian Primary Principals’ Association represents 7,200 Government, Catholic and Independent principals across Australia. 2 May 2011 Media contact: Norm Hart – APPA President: 0458 010 949