Catholic principals say they are flying blind until a deal is struck, making scheduling, hiring and decisions on camps and new buildings more complicated.Marco Di Cesare, principal of Melbourne boys’ school Marcellin College, said: “We’re all frustrated. We just need the agreement to hurry up.”
But Egberts said achieving parity with the state system without disadvantaging students was a real challenge for the Catholic system, which relied on federal government funding, tuition fees, and to a lesser extent, state government funding.“We’re trying to work through what we can actually do that’s going to allow schools to remain viable and to provide the education that schools want to give.”
The IEU’s Debra James said staff in Catholic schools were “looking down the barrel of a new school year without clarity around their basic working conditions”.