Teachers from across the country joined state and territory education ministers to talk about the “struggles and glories” the sector is facing.
“It’s gotten a lot, lot harder, lots of admin, the workload has quadrupled since the 90s,” teacher Livia Bolanca said.
Teachers told ministers they feel overworked and underpaid.
“Remuneration has not matched the workload as it has intensified,” Bolanca said.
Federal education minister Jason Clare said the best outcome of today’s meeting was to create a national action plan by December.
“We want a national action plan prepared by the secretaries of our department, drawing on the expertise of the teachers, the unions, the Catholic schools and the independent schools,” Clare said.
“And to put that action plan together for us to tick off when we meet again in December.
“That’s it, in a nutshell, out of what we got today.
“Today was about listening to teachers, harvesting those good ideas, and now working on a plan we can implement to make a real difference.”
Education department modeling predicts there will be 4000 fewer teaching graduates than needed by 2025.
Only half of teaching students on average are completing their degree.
Clare said some ideas ministers are considering include early practical experience, paid internships, better preparation for teaching reading and mathematics to students, and mentoring.
Most of these ideas apply to university students.
“We know the finishing pay is not high enough to attract some people or keep some people,” former education department secretary Lisa Paul said.
Clare acknowledged teachers should be paid more however there is a “limited budget” to do it.
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