Digital tools to reduce admin for teachers

The NSW Government has released a plan designed to reduce duplicative, repetitive and low-value administration tasks for teachers.

On the flip side, this will give teachers more time to prepare quality lessons and teach their students.

Teachers and school staff are being called on to provide feedback on the Quality Time Action Plan, which leverages technology and digital tools to streamline teaching tasks.

“We know that quality teachers have the biggest impact on student outcomes — by streamlining and simplifying the work done outside of the classroom we can enhance the experience and outcomes within the classroom,” said Minister for Education Sarah Mitchell.

“The department needs to always support teachers to do their best work. This plan is about asking teachers to help shape the solutions they need from the system.

“While lesson planning, marking and reporting are core parts of the job, we can make these processes smarter, more intuitive and high-value rather than cumbersome, repetitive and wasteful.

“Not only will this give teachers back valuable time to focus on learning, it will enable us to scale best practice resources and teaching approaches in classrooms across NSW.”

Opportunities for reform identified in the Action Plan include an overhauled assessment system allowing teachers to generate individual student focused assessments in minutes; an online tool to allow teachers to easily store, find, share and tailor lesson plans and learning programs; and streamlined administration requirements for maintaining accreditation.

“The Action Plan represents the next phase of the work to create more time for teachers, which is a core component of the School Success Model. To date, this work has saved an estimated 105 hours per principal, 10 hours per teacher and 25 hours per school administration staff member each year,” Mitchell said.

The Action Plan has been released for consultation and feedback from school staff and stakeholders, enabling schools to have direct input into the reform agenda.

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