The OECD says Australian teachers work longer hours and receive less competitive salaries compared to other similarly educated professions, which is contributing to a nationwide teacher shortage.
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00:00Well, it certainly reflects the stories that we hear from our membership across the country.
00:08Unsustainable workloads are a significant problem. It's pretty common for people to
00:12be working on average about a 50-hour week, which means in excess of 12 hours of unpaid
00:19work every week. And, of course, we do know about the chronic staff shortages, particularly
00:25teacher shortages that we have across our system, which are, of course, exacerbating
00:31the workloads and the challenges we confront in classrooms every day.
00:34The OECD report also says that the disciplinary climate in Australian schools is among the
00:40worst in its group of countries. Are teachers, your members, telling you that student behaviour
00:46is getting worse?
00:47Yeah, there are certainly concerns being raised with us about student behaviour, but I think
00:53we need to have a broader discussion than that, because when you starve a school system
00:58of the resources that are required, as we've seen in Australia over the last decade, of
01:04course that plays out in the classroom. And, you know, these are kids we're talking about
01:09who need extra support with their learning, with their mental health, with behavioural
01:16challenges. And that requires our schools, our public schools, to be resourced to the
01:20level that the federal government has set more than a decade ago, and which they continue
01:25to fail to address. Only 1.3 per cent of public schools in Australia right now are funded
01:32to that standard. And that means our schools, our teachers, our principals and support staff
01:37don't have the resources they need to respond to the very diverse and complex needs of our
01:43students.
01:44And are people leaving the profession because of the stresses?
01:48They certainly are. Workload is the most significant reason cited by our membership. But of course
01:54other issues about lack of respect for the profession, salaries that don't value the
01:58important work that they do for our community, are all issues which are driving people out
02:04of the profession. And governments, again, have focused very much on attracting new people
02:09into the profession. What they've failed to do is address the critical issues which are
02:13driving the existing workforce away, and will in fact drive our future members of the
02:19profession away as well. So we need to see public schools fully and fairly funded by
02:25the federal government and by state and territory governments around the country to ensure
02:30that staff in our schools have the resources needed to address the critical and important
02:35needs of our students.
02:37Merida, through our painting, a bad picture of being a teacher, aren't we? Why do people
02:41sign up to do the job in the first place?
02:46Teachers are very committed to the important work they do. It is a very enjoyable
02:51profession where you get to work with young people and children every day and to make a
02:56real difference to their lives. And people continue, despite the real challenges they
03:01face in doing this work, to want to make a difference for the kids they have in their
03:05classrooms. And unfortunately, our governments aren't meeting the needs of our staff or
03:10the children in our schools to be able to deliver that high quality education and
03:15support that is so clearly needed by our system.
03:19And we really need the federal government in particular to step up in the current funding
03:24negotiations and ensure that they follow through on the promise that they made prior to
03:29the last election to see public schools fully and fairly funded.
03:33Schools need the resources to meet the needs of their kids and to support the staff in
03:38doing the work that they're doing.
03:41Our members are stepping up.
03:42They're deeply committed.
03:43We need governments to do the same.