‘Be That Teacher’ campaign: $10m teacher hiring drive to end shortages

In a bid to end the crippling nationwide teacher shortage, the federal government has a new $10m plan to recruit Aussies. Watch videos.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese will on Tuesday launch a $10 million teacher recruitment campaign in conjunction with all states and territories in a bid to end the crippling nationwide teacher shortage.

The move comes as preliminary data suggests teaching enrolments have already started to increase since The Daily Telegraph’s own Best In Class and Australia’s Best Teachers campaigns at the beginning of the year.

The success of that campaign paved the way for the federal government’s move.

The “Be That Teacher” campaign features public school teachers from around the country recalling a moment or a student that changed their life and made them realise how valuable teaching was.

They are all real stories from real teachers at real state schools and can be found at a new dedicated website bethatteacher.gov.au which has been especially designed to showcase public education and provide a simple and direct pathway for anyone interested in teaching.

The campaign is unlike anything ever embarked on before and underscores the desperate need to value teachers more and boost morale, with low graduate completion rates and high attrition in what is arguably the nation’s most important profession.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese with Minister for Education, Jason Clare. Picture: David Swift

It has been co-funded by all governments, with the commonwealth tipping in $5 million and the states and territories funding the remaining $5 million between them.

It was personally inspired by Education Minister Jason Clare from a campaign he saw decades ago in New York, with News Corp’s education campaign giving him the confidence he needed that something similar could work here.

Preliminary tertiary admission figures reveal that the number of people enrolling in Bachelor of Education Primary and Secondary degree leading in to 2024 is up by 2.5 per cent across the country, equating to around 900 more students.

However insiders stressed this was preliminary and there was clearly much more work needed to do to fill the gap.

Mr Clare said teaching was the most important job in the country and getting more teachers into the classroom was his number one priority.

“Recent surveys show that most teachers don’t think that what they do is valued by the community. We need to change that,” Mr Clare said.

“This campaign is all about changing the way we as a country think about our teachers, and the way our teachers think our country thinks of them.

“I want more young Australians to want to be a teacher. To be that teacher, who inspires and changes young lives,” he said.

“Teaching is the most important job in the world.”

Kirrawee High School Music Coordinator Kerri Lacy. Picture: Richard Dobson

The NSW ad features Kirrawee High School music teacher Kerri Lacey, who recalls a Year 7 student called Michael whose life she transformed.

He had been going through a rough patch when she met him but she kept encouraging him, telling him he was a star. Then upon graduation she was overwhelmed to discover that he had gone to Sydney Observatory and named a star after her.

Choking back tears, she says: “There is not another profession that touches the human soul as this does.”

Mr Albanese will formally launch the campaign with Mrs Lacey and other teachers from around the country at Kirrawee High School this morning alongside Mr Clare and NSW Education Minister Prue Car.

The videos and a virtual gallery of the teachers mementos can be found at bethatteacher.gov.au, as well as a portal for people to submit their own stories about teachers who inspired them and for those interested in teaching to find out more.

For more information go to www.bethatteacher.gov.au.

Originally published as ‘Be That Teacher’ campaign: $10m teacher hiring drive to end shortages