Australian Publishers Association

Submitter information

Name

Australian Publishers Association

Where are you located?

New South Wales

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)

No

Elevating the profession

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

Would you like to provide feedback about these actions?

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.

Would you like to provide feedback about these actions?

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?

Maximising the time to teach

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

Somewhat agree

Would you like to provide feedback about these actions?

The Draft Action Plan brings welcome attention to teachers’ need for quality resources. Curriculum implementation is vital work: Australian educational publishers have been experts in this for more than 100 years.

Australian education publishers – as major supplier of learning materials are concerned that the action items in Priority Area 4 – do not reflect the supports already in place with regards to curriculum implementation.

In the next iteration of this Action Plan, we hope the recommendations can include:

*An examination of ways to provide optional support for curriculum implementation that involves the local industry producing resources. We note the interest in adaptable resources and stress that the digital resources our industry provides are almost all adaptable for teachers to adopt as they see fit.

*Curriculum authorities (such as ACARA), Departments of Education, and AERO engage with educational publishers to allow them to produce high quality, curriculum aligned resources in the fastest time possible.

We note that ACARA and AERO are also tasked with guidance on Australian Curriculum review cycles to reduce the stress at the teacher level. Transparency on review cycles would also be welcomed by educational publishers, who currently face information blockages when it comes to AC version 9.0 implementation.

Ministerial direction in the form of this Action Plan could ensure Australian publishers have time to commission authors (usually master teachers) to develop the digital products, test, and deliver to schools in the shortest period of time, and to create the highest quality learning materials.

Materials from educational publishers offer advantages: they are updated frequently, provide guidance to teachers, and increasingly are supported by a significant data capacity. Publishers, as the experts in creating learning materials, should be consulted on literacy and numeracy progressions and can provide useful information on what works in a comprehensive and sequenced text.

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.

Would you like to provide feedback about these actions?