Teachers Losing Out in Cessnock Jail Expansion Plans

BY BRIDGET GUNN

Multiple teachers are set to lose their jobs in the controversial 1,000 bed expansion of Cessnock jail.

These proposed changes to the numbers of teachers employed at the jail have raised serious concerns, as the proposed teaching staff will be untrained and not fully qualified.

The government has made plans to cut the 9.5 full time teaching positions back to 2 positions as part of an employment outsourcing scheme.

Phillip Chadwick from the NSW Teachers Federation says these changes will have serious long term effects, as inmates won't learn skills necessary to reintegrate into society.

"One third of the people who might find themselves in prison have very poor language, literacy and numeracy skills, and it is vital that they have the right people in front of them giving them those skills so that when they do leave prison they can reintegrate and make their way back into society," says Chadwick.

"One of the key things that the education systems currently do is they interrupt that cycle of long term generational crime, and so it is vital to have highly trained teachers in place to break that chain."

"Under the new system, the people doing the education in our prisons won't have a proper teaching qualification, it will be a Certificate Four qualification and this is a real disaster for rehabilitation in our correctives services."

An immediate action training drill at Cessnock Jail
Source: The Newcastle Herald