Anonymous #236

Submitter information

Name

Anonymous #236

Where are you located?

South 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)

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 agree

Would you like to provide feedback about these actions?

The actions proposed are a great start and will help to bring the work of teachers into the public eye. The key to action 4 being achieved will be removing excessive red tape around accreditation and aligning state registration requirements nationally to the AITSL standards (I have no idea why this hasn't been done years ago).

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 agree

Would you like to provide feedback about these actions?

Financial incentives for initial teacher education will help. The fact of the matter is that in some areas where it is difficult to find and retain staff (eg maths, sciences, IT) the financial incentives in other industries are always going to be stronger. Improving teacher pay once they get into the profession will help. Attacking some of the problem areas that dissuade people from becoming teachers (eg crowd control, excessive admin work, excessive accountability measures) will also help. There is also a need to provide ways for teachers to change subject specialisations to fill areas of need - finding ways (without running teachers through a whole new undergraduate degree in another field) to get quick top-up qualifications in another area that will enable teachers to train in the area and then teach it, will help to get good quality teachers into other subjects.

Strengthening Initial Teacher Education (ITE)

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

Somewhat agree

Would you like to provide feedback about these actions?

These measures, and particularly the testing for literacy and numeracy are a good start, but bandaid measures will only do so much with the amount of time there is available in the degrees. The problem really is that we don't attract the best quality people into the profession because of the nature of the work and the level of pay. Those two things need to be the strongest focus. There is also a need to ensure content and skills of each subject discipline are mastered and I would consider removing standalone bachelor of teaching/education degrees in favour of minimum combined degree or only offer teacher qualification as a postgraduate masters. Teachers who come through straight teaching degrees are uniformly the weakest. Teachers who have done a BA or BSc etc before the teaching qualification are the best. Those who have other prior professional experience are also valuable and it is good to see those being targeted.

Maximising the time to teach

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

Strongly agree

Would you like to provide feedback about these actions?

Thank you for recognising and addressing these important issues. Schools are crippled by laughably inefficient duplication. Admin/clerical staff can be used much more effectively. Software should be designed and administered centrally to assist with automating many cumbersome tasks. Digital teaching resources of quality need to be an area that is funded ongoing. Other silly uses of teachers' time include attending assemblies, yard duty, crossing duty, chasing up absences, filling out paperwork for behaviour issues, and taking part in too much irrelevant PD designed to tick boxes for those higher up the chain with little tangible benefit. Students are also disadvantaged by time wasted on ineffective teaching techniques and poor quality teacher-made resources that are created in a rush, when pre-made resources are fine when used by good teachers. Note that I don't mean textbooks. We need good quality web based learning resources that kids can learn from at home and teachers can use with kids interactively.

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?

Very effective

Would you like to provide feedback about these actions?

Data does need to be collected across schools, states and systems on subject specialisations and fluidity. There are many teachers stuck in schools doing another subject other than their speciality, when they could be moved to a place where there are students for them. At other schools, students are unable to study some subjects because of a lack of staff expertise and/or resources. Using digital technology wisely and introducing more flexible working arrangements for teachers will help. There are also many teachers who enrol to qualify in subjects where there is barely any demand for extra positions and few openings (eg visual art, music, drama) as their industries do not offer viable alternative career pathways, whereas teachers in areas where there are options available are more in demand. Understanding this should be a key to how we train teachers and which university courses are available to avoid a glut of drama teachers with no prospects and only a tiny pool of physics teachers to fill too many positions.

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 agree

Would you like to provide feedback about these actions?

Introducing more microcredentials is an excellent move and could help to address subject shortages by offering manageable ways for teachers to retrain in different areas, or to train up in leadership specific skills (eg wellbeing, data). Support for new teachers is not very different to what is already there (eg mentoring). I remember my first year of teaching when, teaching a full load of 10 classes of 30+ kids in year 7-8, I was so rushed for time to prepare, mark work and report on behaviour infractions etc that the idea of support being offered to me in the form of MORE of my non-teaching time being given up, was ridiculous. New teachers need a reduced teaching load. They need time to plan and get their heads straight about what they are teaching. 6 months of a reduced load would help and would actually address burnout issues, rather than more addons to their time in the guise of support.