Anonymous #184

Submitter information

Name

Anonymous #184

Where are you located?

Western Australia

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.

Neither agree nor disagree

Would you like to provide feedback about these actions?

Teaching has had the lowest university entrance score in Australia for many years. It should have a much higher score than it currently has. Additionally those intending to study teaching must have successfully passed English and mathematics.

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.

Neither agree nor disagree

Would you like to provide feedback about these actions?

After three university degrees, I completed a Grad Dip Ed at UWA. Despite being the top student in my cohort and being offered a job at a local high school I never pursued a career as a high school teacher. My reasons for this include but are not limited to the follow: a) disrespect / aggressive students (i.e., spent more time on behaviour management than teaching even at yr 12 level); b) being mentored by teachers that clearly didn’t have a clue of the subject and explicitly told me this (i.e., it is not my job to teach fellow teachers the subject given they didn’t specialise in it). Unless these issues are addressed I am unlikely to teach at a high school.

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?

Higher scores are needed to get into a teaching degree at university. Currently the score to get into teaching is so low that students often do a teaching degree simply because they didn’t get into another course.

Maximising the time to teach

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

Neither agree nor disagree

Would you like to provide feedback about these actions?

As a parent I have noticed the large amount of reminder messages that get sent out to parents. Honestly the amount of reminders are not needed if parents take some responsibility of utilising a diary when the initial notice gets sent out. Perhaps the number of notifications to parents can be minimised by giving parents a comprehensive planner with dates of events at the start of the school year instead of frequently feeding parents with information. This will free up teachers’ time.

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.

Neither agree nor disagree

Would you like to provide feedback about these actions?

Protecting teachers’ health and safety is important especially with students becoming increasingly aggressive. Honestly something has drastically changed since I was a high school student in the 1990s. COVID-19 is another huge challenge.
The amount of behaviour management I had to do whilst on prac at a local government high school was a deciding factor not to pursue a career as a high school teacher despite having the top mark in my cohort. I pursued an academic career (teaching and research) at uni instead because it is a safer environment.