Anonymous #255

Submitter information

Name

Anonymous #255

Where are you located?

Victoria

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?

Teacher

Elevating the profession

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

Somewhat agree

Would you like to provide feedback about these actions?

Teachers are not recognised for their achievements within the classroom by their peers/administration/leadership team within their own school so let alone in the wider community. The respect from parents/caregivers and the wider community is diminishing. The recommendations teachers/administration make are in the best interests of the students. It is not a reflection of the parents. This causes conflict between teachers and parents and in the end, it is the teachers who get the backlash and consequentially, the wellbeing of the teachers is not looked after and therefore, leave the school.

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?

Supply is NOT the issue. It is retaining the staff we already have in the system. The job description and salary is not attracting people from other industries who get paid more, take literally no work home and do not spend hours planning and marking. We are overworked, not paid enough and not respected within the industry. Start by reducing class sizes. Imagine having 28 students in a class and trying to do a science experiment. It is logistically impossible and certainly not safe. Imagine having to teach 100 different students. We are not managers as no job has one staff member responsible for the wellbeing and learning for 100 different people. We plan, assess and build rapport with every single one of those students. Schools need larger budgets to hire more teachers to reduce the workload. And the amount of useless meetings. So much red tape and administration. I have attended so many meetings where it has not bettered or improved my teaching practice or improve the learning of the school. It is always about making the school look good in the community. No IT worker wants to leave their $150K job for a teaching job which has endless amounts of planning, marking, making curriculum, meetings and getting paid less.

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?

Secondary school teachers are specialised and therefore these graduates need to have at least a Bachelor's degree in that discipline e.g. a Science teacher needs to at least have a biology/environmental/chemistry/physics background to even teach the senior years. A secondary school teacher should be able to teach juniors and seniors in any discipline. There are too many primary school and physical education teachers in secondary schools who are taking up second methods e.g Maths or Science and have no knowledge in how to teach it, how to run experiments or even understand the scientific method. Secondary school graduates should at least do 2 years of a discipline so they are qualified to teach Yr7-12. This will increase the pool and talent of teachers and not limit their abilities to only teach "up to" a certain year level because they are not qualified. This also goes for laboratory technicians.

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?

WE NEED MORE TIME AND LESS TEACHING HOURS OR LESS STUDENTS IN OUR CLASSES. We have to do so many administrative tasks as well as planning and marking. There are not enough working hours to do this as well as teach. THE CURRICULUM IS TOO DENSE AND PACKED AND CAN ALSO BE IRRELEVANT. We cannot teach everything that is asked of us. We seriously need a conversation on the curriculum that is so dense in VCE that it trickles all the way down to Year 7. The curriculum that students need to learn in Yr12 is way too hard and irrelevant as it is already re-taught at first year university. Why are we doing this to our students? Causing all this stress and anxiety. The curriculum allows for no creativity and no flexibility especially for students who do not like particular subjects at a young age. The curriculum needs a serious revamp and to fit the needs of our society.

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?

WHY CAN'T TEACHERS CHOOSE THEIR WORKLOAD. Most schools do ask teachers their preferred workload but most schools cannot afford to hire more teachers. So what do they do? Most teachers are full time and overalloted. The industry does not give us flexibility at all. Most industries cater to the needs of their workforce and teachers who have children are always looked down on. Why can't part-time teachers have leadership roles? If they are experienced and high accomplished, why are they overlooked for leadership roles. This is unjust and unfair.

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?

It is well known that graduates need to stay make it at least through 3 years to survive in the industry. Most graduates leave the profession because they are not supported within the school or by the system. They need a mentor, they need almost a 0.5FTE load to manage the workload, to understand how to plan, how to assess, cater to every student, how to write curriculum, understand the learning framework of the school, how to provide feedback, go to endless amounts of meetings, communicate with parents and on top of all that, manage their own classroom behaviour. How is a graduate going to manage all of this??? No wonder graduate teachers are leaving in droves.