Tuesday, 26 November 2024

 Brad BATTIN (Berwick) (12:58): I rise today after receiving a message from one of my local students at one of our schools, who came in and did work experience and wrote a statement for us:

The teacher shortage crisis seems to have no end in sight … As a year ten student attending a public school in Victoria, I am often faced with attending classes without my planned teacher, making it difficult to learn consistently. I know that many classes from all different schools don’t have consistent teachers in the classroom. How are we supposed to learn to be workforce ready?

We don’t realize it yet, but when all these kids grow up and leave school, there are going to be some serious issues. Currently, students should learn how to focus and engage in class work, instead they are learning which games haven’t been blocked on the school internet.

Students need stability in their lives, regular classroom teachers provide crucial effective learning. The teachers who are currently working in schools are now overworked and have less time for creative lesson planning and are not able to provide individualised attention. We know that our schools are working hard to solve the problems, and we know that our teachers are doing their best to manage our learning. But the lack of teachers and leaning on CRTs so much is affecting the students greatly. For example, my year ten English class has been without a teacher for most of the year, and it’s starting to show, with no structure there is constant disturbance in the classroom, with kids yelling and throwing things every lesson.

I worry that due to students in classrooms not getting a proper education, they are getting bored and instead of learning, they are engaging in other things, this could be another reason why we are seeing the increased figures of youth crime.

This is a big issue from Holly down at one of my local schools.