The Restricted Permit to Teach program allows students to work in classrooms across the ACT's public and independent schools network.
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00:00Jane Purnell is in her final year of study, but she's already in the classroom.
00:10She's one of about 100 ACT students teaching in schools up to three days a week.
00:15I think it is an amazing opportunity for me to develop my teaching skills in a classroom
00:21setting.
00:22And I think being able to go to uni and getting the support from uni and also the teaching
00:26team at Ainslie and just being able to jumpstart my career in teaching.
00:31The scheme is called a Restricted Permit to Teach.
00:34Undergraduate and master's students teach solo in their final year, with additional
00:38mentoring and support, and are paid a percentage of what a full-time, fully qualified teacher
00:44earns.
00:45It's been done before elsewhere in Australia, but advocates here say the ACT is going about
00:51it differently, making sure students are ready and willing.
00:55What we were seeing in other jurisdictions is that students were telling us that they
01:01were coerced into working full-time while studying full-time, and we heard a number
01:07of cases of them actually dropping out of their degrees because of the pressure and
01:12stress of that experience.
01:14Professor Dalgarno says the scheme has several benefits.
01:18It definitely helps to address the teacher shortage that we're experiencing nationally.
01:23But we actually see it as a plus for the students' experience, because by the time they get to
01:28their final year, they really want to be putting things into practice as frequently as possible.
01:36Jacinta Klein is a master's student who teaches German at an independent school, after a career
01:41in architecture.
01:43While that was rewarding, there was something missing, and at the end of the day, I came
01:46home and didn't really feel like I'd contributed a lot to society, I was missing that sort
01:51of fulfilment and that social element.
01:54She says a school mentor and supportive colleagues have made a huge difference.
01:59It's a juggle, I'm not going to lie, but it's been nice to have that contrast between university
02:05theoretical work and then the practical experiential work that you do in the classroom.
02:10The ACT Education Directorate supports the scheme, but says students don't have to take part.
02:16We're open to recruiting all graduates, whether they've undertaken a PTT in their final year
02:21of studies or not.
02:22And schools don't need to notify pupils and their families in advance that a student will
02:27be in charge of a class.
02:29They're not required to do that as such.
02:31I think what we would always expect is our schools to have good communication with their
02:37families and have a, you know, obviously families are interested to know who's teaching their
02:41kids and where they're coming from.
02:44A review of the first year of the ACT program in 2024 found many positives, though some
02:50students voiced concerns about clashes with uni assessments and about burning out.
02:56It's not the feedback that I've received, but if we were to get that feedback, we would
02:59certainly take that on board.
03:01We don't want teachers to feel uncomfortable or to feel like they're being extended beyond
03:05their abilities.
03:06Log, yeah, because it's got a g.
03:08It's too early to say whether the scheme makes for better teachers, and there's also an elephant
03:13in the classroom.
03:14It needs money because if we, you know, if we were to reduce the face-to-face teaching
03:21time of every teacher in the country by, say, 10 per cent, I think we would improve retention
03:27in the profession immediately, but the cost of that is in the billions nationally.
03:31Back at school, Jane Purnell and Jacinta Klein are excited about the future.
03:36It definitely is a challenge, but I think being able to go into uni and learn at uni
03:43and then being able to put that learning straight into the classroom helps me a lot.
03:47I think if you feel ready to do it, go for it.
03:51It's a very good experience.