THE NSW teachers' union has forced the State Government to water down its decision to allow principals to hand-pick the teachers they hire.

Figures show the Government has not achieved its aim of giving schools greater autonomy in hiring teachers. The policy has been amended to the extent that it applies only to a minority of schools.

Official data from the NSW Department of Education shows that only one position has been filled through open advertisement since the State Government announced the policy change early this year.

The figures show that of 981 classroom teacher vacancies being filled in term two this year, 259 were through the new staffing processes. Most of the vacancies were being filled through the transfer system which gives principals no choice over whom they hire. The number of positions waiting to be filled through open advertisement was 73.

When the former minister for education, John Della Bosca, announced the changes in February, he said all principals would eventually have the right to select the teachers they hired through open advertisements.

Principals have long campaigned for the right to pick quality teachers, instead of having teachers chosen for them through the transfer system. That system entitles teachers to nominate the school of their choice based on the number of points they accumulate by working in remote locations and other schools which are difficult to staff.

However, the Director-General for Education, Michael Coutts-Trotter, has made some concessions to the NSW Teachers Federation since it orchestrated a series of strikes over the issue.

In an online bulletin issued in June, the federation told members that "for the third time since the staffing dispute began, the Department of Education and Training has made unilateral changes to its staffing procedures". It said this made it clear "that by disputing the imposed procedures we can force changes".

The federation president, Maree O'Halloran, has said the industrial campaign would continue until the union succeeded in imposing the state-wide transfer system on all schools.

The president of the NSW Primary Principals' Association, Geoff Scott, said: "There hasn't been a great deal of change in the way schools are being staffed." Mr Scott said he expected teachers and the State Government would make further concessions to resolve the dispute after the new Minister for Education, Verity Firth, settled in.

The staffing dispute has been a thorn in the side of the State Government which faces another dispute with teachers over a new three-year salaries agreement when the current agreement expire at the end of the year.