Anonymous #152

Submitter information

Name

Anonymous #152

Where are you located?

Western Australia

What type of area do you live in?

Remote

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

No

Elevating the profession

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

Neither agree nor disagree

Would you like to provide feedback about these actions?

All methods tried in past. A converted campaign to recognise impact of teaching in community is required modelled on the quit smoking campaign

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?

The measures to support University graduates by finding more places and fighting scholarships is a good idea. However the rest of the items missed the point. The reason teachers are leaving in droves is because of the workload associated with being in the classroom and in the school. Teaching is one of the very few professions where you are expected to work in your own time, you’re expected to supply your own resources, you expected to pay for student activities and supplies, your expected to supervise children in your own time outside of school so they can attend events and camps. Whilst the teaching hours may not be equivalent to a 95 job, the additional hours required and expected on afternoons, evenings and weekends drives teachers away. In the current climate you can earn double what a teacher earns do your 8 to 12 hours and walk away from the job. The quality of life is extremely poor for a teacher compare to almost all other professions.

Strengthening Initial Teacher Education (ITE)

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

Strongly disagree

Would you like to provide feedback about these actions?

Adding more assessment items to a pre-grad teacher Study load is going to have zero affect on the quality of teachers. Preparing teachers for life in rule and remote places by providing practical experience by teachers who live and breathe a remote life and not by lecturers who haven’t been in a classroom for extensive periods of time and have never worked in either challenging environments or in remote areas does not support quality teaching. Teaching should follow the practice and programs of the medicine schools where students are placed very early in classrooms for extensive periods of time rather than spending multiple hours writing assignments they will have a little affect on their ability to practice the profession. Putting student teachers in classrooms for a For a five week stint each term will prepare them for what life is really like in a school in a classroom. Strongly support the model of student doctors and EDUCATION should model their practice on the same

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?

Very few of those retention ideas will be affective because they are meaningless. The fact that you use the W.A. toil system as an example of a way to minimise workload shows the lack of understanding of the impact of the high workload of teachers. The current Shorty teachers can’t take the toil. Not only that there’s no change to the workload as when you take toil you’re expected to create lesson plans and then catch up on any work that you’ve missed when you return. There has to be a genuine solution to reducing workload to retain teachers. Teachers are expected to work from 7 am to 10 pm to achieve outcomes it’s no wonder staff are leaving in droves. Lipservice won’t solve this problem. The accountability frameworks have become so onerus on schools and therefore leaders and therefore teachers that it is more likely that a teacher will even stay. If you genuinely looking at retaining teachers ask teachers. Politicians adding more more accountability testing and requirements with very little knowledge or care factor over the impact of the workload is causing staff to leave. In the current climate we work is abundant it is not surprising that staff are leaving To attain a better work life balance

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?

Not effective at all

Would you like to provide feedback about these actions?

Not one of the strategies undertakes research to genuinely understand the future needs of the teaching workforce. Every single one of these is about publishing more data, and the data will only be collected from schools which adds an additional workload to school leaders and school teachers. Again this is lipservice paid to the problem, it’ll gain political points but it will not look at the core root of the problem and it does not involve any level of research to understand the issues and aim to resolve those issues. The strategies continue to increase the workload and therefore severely impact the work life balance of teachers and therefore teachers will continue to leave

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.

Would you like to provide feedback about these actions?