For the first time, every public school teacher in NSW will have mandatory performance reviews in a push to lift teaching standards and ensure "the very best teachers get better" while underperforming teachers are removed from classrooms.
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In an unprecedented agreement between the state government and the NSW Teachers Federation, all teachers will have a performance and development plan and teachers will need to do 100 hours of professional development every five years to retain their accreditation.
A new approach for principals to deal with underperforming teachers will also be introduced, which will mean teachers who fail to perform in the classroom can be stood down in 10 weeks, about half the time it currently takes for a principal to tackle poor performance.
Education Minister Adrian Piccoli said lifting the standards of teachers was internationally recognised as key to improving student achievement.
"To improve student performances, we need to maintain an unrelenting focus on the quality and capacity of our teaching workforce," he said.
Mr Piccoli said improving teaching standards, not producing more teaching graduates, was the focus of the state government.
His comments came as the vice-chancellor of the Australian Catholic University, Greg Craven, said on Thursday that an ageing teaching workforce and an increase in school student numbers over the next decade meant more, not fewer, education graduates were needed.
The university is the second-largest educator of teachers in the country.
"According to the Australian Council for Educational Research's 2013 Staff in Australia's Schools report, close to one in five Australian teachers is 56 years of age or older," Professor Craven said.
"There is also an expectation from the Commonwealth government that Australian schools will face a large influx of students over the next eight years, with an additional 670,000 enrolments over that period."
But Mr Piccoli said "dumping more teachers in the system was not the answer".
"There should be high standards of getting into university and then we want to maintain those high standards in schools," he said.
Mr Piccoli said the government would spend an additional $17 million on teacher professional development; an increase of 50 per cent.
Previously, teachers and principals had annual reviews but they were often informal and there was no statewide consistent approach.
NSW Teachers Federation president Maurie Mulheron said the performance plans would apply to everyone from "principals down to casual teachers".
"We are hoping people will use these plans as an opportunity to do some serious career planning," Mr Mulheron said.
