The New South Wales government is now offering cash incentives worth $4,000 to public school teachers who obtain national Highly Accomplished and Lead Teacher (HALT) accreditation.

The accreditation demonstrates and recognises highly effective, innovative, and exemplary teaching practices. In 2022, over 180 teachers were officially recognised throughout Australia, making the total number of teachers accredited nationally since its 2012 commencement 1,211.

Now, New South Wales public school teachers can receive a $4,000 incentive for completing the accreditation, on top of the potential $120,000 salary the certification allows teachers to access.

“We know the quality of teachers across NSW is world-class,” said the Minister for Education and Early Learning Sarah Mitchell. “We want to make it as easy as possible for our best teachers to be recognised and remunerated for their impact.”

NSW’s latest HALT accreditation incentives included:

• A $2,000 one-off payment upon successful completion of HALT module 1, and
• A $2,000 one-off payment upon successful completion of HALT module 2.

Teachers who go through the HALT accreditation modules will automatically be paid their incentives under the new streamlined policy that was released by the NSW government last year.

Why the push?

The incentive is the NSW government’s newest push to help get the number of HALT-accredited teachers in the state from the current 310 to at least 2,500 by 2025.

The Australian Education Ministers have since followed the NSW Liberal and Nationals Government’s lead and set up their own target of 10,000 HALTs across the country as part of the national teacher workforce action plan.

They also adopted the NSW government’s proposal to introduce HALT specialisations, including those in the areas of mathematics and classroom management.

“I am thrilled that we are on track to meet this target, with almost 600 new teachers signing up since we streamlined the process last year,” Mitchell said. “These new incentives will attract even more teachers to put their hand up and gain recognition for their work.”

In addition to the possible salary upgrade, HALT-accredited teachers also form a talent pool for which they could be selected for the NSW Liberal and Nationals’ Rewarding Excellence in Teaching path which can in turn offer qualified teacher’s salaries of up to $152,000 “to keep them in the classroom”, Mitchell said.

NSW’s new incentives would be paid on top of the $7,000 pay rise, which would now come into effect as soon as a teacher finalised their HALT accreditation.

Teachers can register to complete their HALT accreditation at the NSW Education Standards Authority (NESA) website.