Tuesday, 17 October 2023

Teachers

Trung LUU (Western Metropolitan) (21:37): (499) My adjournment matter is for the Minister for Education. Minister, teachers are leaving the profession at alarming rates. The action I seek is for the minister to address teachers’ concerns around school violence and increased admin work and deliver a strategy to retain teachers. It has been reported that there are over 3000 teacher vacancies. Competition for teachers is fierce, and schools that hire someone often lose them to another school that makes a better offer. A recent survey by the Australian Education Union found that nearly 40 per cent of schools have to cut subjects and cancel classes because they cannot get enough teachers. The government has announced a free teaching degree program which might encourage some teachers to enter the profession, but this will not stop experienced teachers leaving. The education union has called for retention payments for existing teachers and placement payments for training teachers to assist with retention. Teachers are not leaving because of the pay but because conditions in today’s schools are bad and getting worse. Teachers are overloaded and burnt out by increasing demand as the paperwork piles up. They are also stressed because violence in schools is growing. Teachers feel powerless to stop bad behaviour because of government directives around classroom management. So, Minister, I ask: could you please step in, address the problem and help schools to retain teachers?