Anonymous #083

Submitter information

Name

Anonymous #083

Where are you located?

Australian Capital Territory

What type of area do you live in?

Metropolitan

Are you an education professional?
(e.g. teacher, school leader, learning support assistant, teacher’s aide)

Yes

Which sector do you work in?

Secondary

What is your occupation?

Teacher

Elevating the profession

The actions proposed recognise the value teachers bring to students, communities and the economy.

Somewhat agree

Would you like to provide feedback about these actions?

I like the idea that there is finally some attention being paid to elevating the status of teachers. I don't think an ad campaign will be enough, but it's a start.
I think some work needs to be done by Government on addressing the reasons why the public views the profession of teaching as an undesirable job. People are afraid of being on the receiving end of violence and abuse, no one thinks the pay is worth it, everyone agrees the workload is too high. If you don't fix these problems (which are within your power to fix) then you're not giving the public a reason to want to become teachers.

Improving teacher supply

The actions proposed will be effective in increasing the number of students entering ITE, number of students completing ITE and the number of teachers staying in and/or returning to the profession.

Somewhat disagree

Would you like to provide feedback about these actions?

A big barrier to career-change is that no high-earning professional is going to give up two years of mortgage payments to go back to uni. ESPECIALLY when they would end up having to take a big pay cut at the other end. There was really no reason to shift from the one year Graduate Diploma to a two year Masters a few years ago - this just created a bigger barrier for people who wanted to get into the profession. Ask any teacher and they will tell you that they learned nothing from their lectures and essays at university; everything they learned about teaching they got from the practicals. Unfortunately, the model for teaching practicals is completely broken, and you have not proposed a mechanism to fix it.
Good-quality teaching practicals cost money. Lots of money. If you want to do this properly you are going to have to compensate teachers properly to take on pre-service teachers: I'm talking both extra money, and time off their regular teaching load (eg. line allowances). Teacher training should be more like an apprenticeship, writing essays and listening to academics doe not prepare you for teaching, this is in fact a barrier to entry for many people.
You have an opportunity to solve this problem now, please do it.

Strengthening Initial Teacher Education (ITE)

The actions proposed will ensure initial teacher education supports teacher supply and quality.

Would you like to provide feedback about these actions?

Please see my comments in the previous section.

Maximising the time to teach

The actions proposed will improve retention and free up teachers to focus on teaching and collaboration.

Strongly disagree

Would you like to provide feedback about these actions?

The solution to this is very simple.
Before I started teaching, a full-time teaching load for an ACT College teacher was 4 lines. Now it is 5 lines. That was a massive increase in workload, and the ACT College system has never recovered from it. Non-academic, extracurricular programs such as sport were decimated in public Colleges. Teacher workload, and hence stress, are now much, much higher. This comes with a backdrop of increased pressure to achieve a high ATAR, and increased mental health issues among students.
Put us back on 4 lines and that will be the last you hear from us on workload.

Better understanding future teacher workforce needs

How effective are the proposed actions in better understanding future teacher workforce needs, including the number of teachers required?

Would you like to provide feedback about these actions?

Better career pathways to support and retain teachers in the profession

The proposed actions will improve career pathways, including through streamlining the process for Highly Accomplished and Lead Teacher (HALT) accreditation, and providing better professional support for teachers to retain them in the profession.

Somewhat disagree

Would you like to provide feedback about these actions?

Having been active in the AEU for my entire career I can tell you that HALT accreditation is unpopular with teachers and is viewed as something the Government keeps pushing. I can only imagine this is a way for you folks to say you are paying us more for higher quality work, while keeping the number of teachers receiving this higher pay as low as possible.
The barriers to HALT accreditation are FAR too high for your overworked workforce, and the reality is that better, harder working teachers (the ones that you folks want to have HALT accreditation) are the ones with the least time on their hands. Even if you reduce the barriers, I'm still not sure what you are trying to achieve here, I can only assume it's some kind of performance-based pay model, where WE have to work harder so that YOU can retain us.
Your biggest problem right now is retention. Every teacher is thinking about leaving. We see plenty of other jobs out there with bigger salaries and lower workloads than ours. If you are not going to attempt to drastically reduce our face-to-face teaching load (see my previous comment) then you will have to drastically increase our pay if you want to keep those of us who are still hanging on. We are angry, parents are angry, a token gesture will not suffice this time.