The school, which has only recently come off the disadvantaged school’s program, has been told that they will lose the teacher at the end of this term and he will not be replaced. The teacher has been at the school for 17 years and is much loved by the school community.

Forensic psychologist, and parent of the school, Dr. Ian Nisbet says this will have long term negative effects and will cost both the department and the community. “I see the downstream effects of these decisions in my work with young offenders. The north coast has the highest rate of children from sole parent families in the state.”

“This decision flies in the face of all that we know about the crucial role that men play in boy’s education, especially in disadvantaged areas.”

Less than 20% of primary teachers are male and numbers of men training to become primary school teachers have dropped steeply in recent years.

“This decision is a kick in the guts to both the parents and teachers who have worked hard to improve the school over the last few years,” says Darren Shaw, another parent of the school. “Now we lose our only male teacher, class sizes go up and we are back where we started from.”

Both Mr. Shaw and Dr. Nisbet fear this decision will lead to a loss of enrolments and have called on the Minister to urgently review the transfer.

This decision has inflamed community anger following the recent loss of the post office in Repton and speculation about the closure of Bellingen hospital.

A spokesman for the Department of Education sais that to ensure teachers were allocated fairly and according to student need, public schools across NSW were staffed according to an agreement developed by the Department of Education and training, in consultation with the NSW Teachers Federation.

“Changing enrolments mean fewer teachers than expected are needed to staff Repton Public School,” he said. “The selection of the teacher to be transferred was made by the Principal in consultation with the School Education Director according to Department policy, which puts the highest priority on the curriculum needs of the school.”