Teacher turnover is low in the ACT amid workforce shortage, says Education Minister Yvette Berry

The final hearing for the Legislative Assembly inquiry into the Auditor-General's report on teaching quality heard the directorate offered about 450 teachers registered as casuals the new arrangement which would give them set hours of work each week in order to make relief teaching more attractive.

Education Minister Yvette Berry said the directorate had employed a number of strategies to tackle the teacher shortage, including working with the Australian Education Union on a taskforce to reduce workload pressures.

"The ACT still continues to have the lowest turnover in the country," she said.

Executive group manager of business services David Matthews said recent data showed territory had a 5 per cent separation rate and that fewer than 10 first-year teachers left education after one year of teaching.

The inquiry heard there was no specific policy for the distribution of teachers in the end of year transfer round.

The ACT Auditor-General found the Education Directorate did not centrally plan or monitor the distribution of experienced teachers across the public school system.

This meant that principals could exclude highly experienced teachers from the annual transfer round and leave other schools without access to this expertise.

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Mr Matthews said under the current system new educators could be placed in schools with high numbers of vacancies and less-experienced staff.

"What we're trying to encourage with school leaders and teachers is for them to see the benefit ... of moving schools to make a contribution across the territory," he said.

Directorate officials defended the use of informal methods of performance management.

The audit noted only one teacher was reported as underperforming in 2019-20 which was low for an workforce of more than 4000 teachers and school leaders.

Deputy director-general Jane Simmons said there was a focus on building the capacity of teachers and that most teachers improve their performance before a formal process is instigated.

"Some teachers make decision to leave before formal process of dismissal," Ms Simmons said.

A report on the inquiry is due in December.

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