Anonymous #137

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Submitter information

Name

Anonymous #137

Where are you located?

Western Australia

What type of area do you live in?

Regional or rural

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?

School leader

Elevating the profession

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

Strongly disagree

Would you like to provide feedback about these actions?

Lots of rhetoric around recognition of teachers. Governments have continuously put teaching and teachers down. Our society values professions where the level of remuneration is high. Whilst teachers earn less than many other jobs, including those that don't require university, then we will continue to see teachers viewed as lower class. Recent enterprise bargaining where teachers salary's don't keep up with inflation, let alone go above it are not going to make teaching a profession that will be elevated.

The other thing that the public jump on is the "only work 9 to 3:30 and have all those holidays, what are they complaining about".

There is little that any of the governments can do to reverse the trends of teacher burnout and leaving the profession. They've created their own mess and now don't know how to fix it.

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.

Strongly disagree

Would you like to provide feedback about these actions?

Paying for teacher education and providing incentives will only attract staff, not keep them. The problems that are driving teachers out of classes now aren't going away. All that will happen is that it will cost millions to get more teachers for a few years. By the time these ones leave, many of the current ones will also be gone.

There is lots of work required to keep current teachers. Reduced workload, proper student behaviour management that prevents the levels of misbehaviour and violence in schools, recognition of the profession to society and much better remuneration are required.

Teachers were on par with politician wages many years ago, but now fall sadly far behind.

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?

Once ITE students get into schools they see the mess they're headed for. That's why so many don't go into the classroom. Of those that do finish, many find alternative employment that uses the teachers skills.

Teaching students should not need to undergo Literacy and Numeracy assessments if the highest achieving students are choosing education degrees. This smacks of letting in anyone who has passed and then improve their skills. If we continue to only attract students who average low scores then we will continue to have lower levels of education provided by them.

It will be difficult in the current climate to attract people from other professions into teaching. Why would someone, a trades person for example, leave their mining job, higher pay, bonuses paid and family friendly rosters to go into a school, be abused, have lower pay, no overtime, no toil and no bonuses?

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?

There's an adhoc approach to this across the nation. In WA, the addition of TOIL for assessments not related to curriculum is a joke, there's not enough teachers now, so how do they get that time?

Teachers give their own time for many after hours activities from school productions, country week sports, camps, excursions, carnivals.. the list goes on. NONE of this is paid or provided with TOIL, and if this occurs during the school day then those same teachers are expected to leave lessons for their classes whilst they're absent.

The level of administration that has come into schools due to loss of local regional offices and reductions in central office staffing have required exorbitant amounts of compliance work by teachers and leaders.

COVID saw the removal of many of these "mandatory" reporting requirements, but once out of lock down, they all came back. If they weren't that important for one year, then they aren't important at all.

Federal government reporting requirements to secure funding also lead to this issue.

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?

Seriously, this has been an issue for more than 10 years. All governments have known that there will be a teacher shortage and have been "saved by the bell" on a few occasions. For example the Global Financial Crisis kept many teachers in schools when they saw their superannuation fall to low levels.

However, now there are so many other opportunities for teachers in a workforce that is in demand for employees. Teachers are waking up to how badly they've been treated, how little they've been listened to and are now able to vote with their feet and find alternative employment.

The projections for shortages are well known, what hasn't happened is governments admitting their failings. Lack of funding to schools, funding directed at private schools over public, teachers saying they're leaving and actually following through and specialist areas being hit hard in secondary schools.

Government needs to be honest and say they saw this all coming and did nothing. Then come up with some real targets for getting a workforce back. This priority area is all about making lists of reasons and not actually DOING something.

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.

Strongly disagree

Would you like to provide feedback about these actions?

Unlike many other professions, teachers reach a peak and find they cannot progress higher without leaving the classroom. If they want to earn a high salary, then they go into leadership roles (or leave!) This takes the better and more experienced teachers out of the classroom. Whilst there are the HALT projects in many states (L3 classroom teacher in WA) these too are limited in their level of remuneration. They also come with a requirement for additional responsibilities, that eat into the teaching time of these teachers.

Teachers are not staying for many reasons; remuneration, status, student behaviour, support from the employer.