More than 700 regional NSW schools ineligible for rural incentive scheme intended to attract staff

It is one of 735 schools outside greater Sydney that are ineligible for rural and remote school incentives.

Incentives include moving allowances, trial placements and additional personal leave. Most Sydney schools receive one or two transfer points and are not eligible for these incentives.

But according to research undertaken by Guardian Australia, some schools that are more than 400km from Sydney are also one- or two-point schools, putting them on par with metropolitan schools in competing for teachers. Gilgandra high school and Merriwa Central school in western NSW are just two of the many that only receive two transfer points and are not classed as incentive schools.

These non-incentive rural schools are struggling to fill teaching positions amid staff shortages. Breanna Patton, the NSW Teachers Federation representative for Gilgandra high school, said in some schools this had resulted in classes being merged, principals covering teaching roles and specialist subjects such as mathematics being taught by teachers with a humanities specialty.

There are now 10 vacancies at Gilgandra high school. While some are being backfilled, Patton said it was unfair on the students.

Some schools in suburban Sydney receive more incentive points than regional schools, usually due to a difficulty retaining teachers.

One Sydney-based teacher, who asked to remain anonymous, said they would be more inclined to move to a regional school with higher incentive points.

Merriwa Central school, 300km north-west of Sydney, has had five teacher vacancies since the start of the year.

Another funding program, the priority recruitment support, was piloted last year to give a $20,000 recruitment bonus and relocation support package to select positions in regional NSW schools. The program does not include Merriwa Central school.

A spokesperson for the NSW Department of Education said it was updating and modernising the rural and regional incentives scheme after a 2021 review.

In a statement to Guardian Australia, the spokesperson said this included doubling the targeted recruitment bonus from $10,000 up to $20,000 and making temporary teachers eligible for some existing incentives like the $30,000 rural teacher incentive, the $5,000 a year retention bonus and the $10,000 a year experienced teacher bonus.

The NSW Teachers Federation is calling for a systemic overhaul of education funding to help plug staffing shortfalls.