New crackdown on lazy teachers

WA's education chief will challenge principals to crack down on lazy and incompetent teachers when she launches a new offensive on substandard teaching in public schools.

Education Department director-general Sharyn O'Neill plans to warn principals at forums to be held in the first few weeks of the new school year that mediocre teachers will no longer be tolerated.

"I want to put on notice with principals that I will be taking a direct interest in teacher quality," she said. "I don't think children should have to bear the brunt of poor performance."

Ms O'Neill said she was looking at options to deal more quickly with inferior teachers and "nothing was off the table".

"I am considering putting a team in place to support principals directly in dealing with underperforming teachers," she said.

She noted that Police Commissioner Karl O'Callaghan could express a loss of confidence in an officer and would investigate whether she could obtain a similar authority over teachers.

Ms O'Neill said, though the majority of WA's teachers were excellent, there were some who were "ill-matched for teaching".

They included teachers who struggled to manage students' behaviour, failed to set tests or homework, did not provide classroom routine or structure and were unable to deal with queries from parents.

"I think parents would be on my side when I say we shouldn't accept poor performance or mediocrity," she said. "Teachers know who the poor performers are because they cover for them and I don't think they should have to pick up the slack for those that struggle."

Ms O'Neill said the move towards independent public schools in the past five years meant that principals now had greater control over selecting teaching staff as well as how they spent their budgets.

But with this independence came increased responsibility to improve the quality of teaching and learning in their schools.

She acknowledged principals found dealing with inferior teachers a difficult and drawn-out process because they had to give them chances to improve and write progress reports.

"I am not sure why kids have to sit in front of teachers who either can't or won't make those changes," she said. "I want to back principals up with a much stronger response to poor performance."

Ms O'Neill said the department was willing to provide support for those teachers who struggled to meet the standards.

But if a few teachers would not put in the effort, or were not able to come up to standard, then schools should act swiftly "because they're impacting on students' lives".

She said the department had recently reintroduced classroom observation as a requirement for the performance management process and adopted new national professional teaching standards.

"I don't think you get the respect as a profession if you're not willing to deal with the poor performers," she said.

"Our teachers do a great job but we want everybody to pull their weight."

In the past two years, 53 teachers have been dismissed or left of their own accord after being investigated for substandard teaching.