The Andrews Labor Government is giving teachers and school leaders the extra resources, training and incentives they need through a $244.6 million package to improve the quality of teaching and learning in every classroom across the state.

Minister for Education James Merlino today launched a range of new incentives to attract teachers and fill hard-to-staff positions, as well as a suite of initiatives to give teachers and principals the support they need to excel in the classroom.

The package includes:

• $41.7 million in financial incentives, including up to $50,000 to encourage teachers to work in hard-to-staff positions and schools, and yearly retention payments of up to $9,000 for three years to encourage teachers to remain in these positions for longer.
• $5.6 million for employment-based pathways into teaching, so the best and brightest university graduates and those with career experience can learn-on-the-job as a teacher, while simultaneously studying for postgraduate teaching qualifications at university.
• $41.5 million to support Victoria’s best school leaders to take on the most challenging and specialised roles. This will see more than forty executive principals employed to take on the most complex school leadership roles in Victoria, while nine additional Turnaround Teams will work to drive school improvement.
• $25.2 million to recruit, train and support Learning Specialists in every Victorian government school. Learning Specialists are a classification of highly skilled teachers who want to stay in the classroom and support improvement in other teachers’ work by sharing their knowledge with their colleagues.
• $68.4 million to extend Professional Learning Communities to all Victorian government schools. This means leaders and teachers in every government secondary school will be supported to collaborate and share best-practice across schools.

These investments incorporate and build on $93.9 million in initiatives that were previously announced to improve educational outcomes for rural and regional students, to better support students in these areas and address the disparity between regional and metropolitan schools.

The Labor Government is building the Education State so that every student can access a great local school and a quality education, no matter where they live.