Thousands of teachers needed to fill significant shortage
The Palaszczuk Government has announced a huge recruitment campaign to enlist thousands of new teachers over the next five years, with some areas of Queensland already struggling to meet demand.
Education
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THOUSANDS of teachers are needed to fill a forecasted decline in jobs over the next five years, as the Palaszszuk Government on Sunday announced a recruitment campaign to entice Queenslanders to the career.
Education Minister Grace Grace said although the state was meeting its demand currently with 560,000 students enrolled at state schools, with over 55,000 teachers, national data from the Queensland College of Teachers forecast a decline in the numbers of teachers registering with the college.
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She said areas such as Mackay and Cairns had struggled to reach the numbers of teachers needed in the regions.
“We need to lift those numbers, at the moment we are meeting our demand but there are estimates that there could be a number of thousands of positions worldwide, in Australia and in Queensland if we don’t start our recruitment campaign,” she said.
The state is forecast to see an additional 8000 student enrolments by 2026, with teacher numbers needing to grow to meet the gap.
Ms Grace said schools like Kelvin Grove State College had already experienced exponential growth.
Queensland Teachers Union president Kevin Bates said the state had seen significant shortages, claiming anywhere west of Toowoomba and north of Gympie had been impacted by a lack of teachers.
He said there continued to be debate around the viability of the Graduate Diploma, which currently allows someone with a Bachelor’s Degree to become a teacher through a two-year Master’s degree.
The diploma previously only required one year of study.
“In the current climate of significant shortages of teachers, a two year qualification is a disincentive for people to take on. One year is already difficult for people to take on … a two year course can take significantly longer and can require sacrifices over a longer period of time,” he said.
Ms Grace said changing the post graduate teaching qualifications from one year to two may have had unintended consequences when it came to attracting enough teachers across the country.
“Queensland is advocating that this issue be given serious consideration as part of the National Teacher Workforce Strategy, in particular getting the balance right between the number of teachers and quality education outcomes,” she said.
Mr Bates said one of the biggest concerns for people to change careers was the cost of education, suggesting HECS could be fully or partially paid by the government to promote teachers to move to rural areas.
No incentives have so far been declared for the recruitment campaign, however Ms Grace said they will be announced soon.
LNP Shadow Education Minister Jarrod Bleijie said the teacher shortage was an ongoing issue that put the education of students at risk.
“The Palaszczuk Labor Government has no one to blame but themselves for regular teacher shortages in our schools,” he said.
“The LNP will get back to basics in schools, decluttering the curriculum to help our kids get better results while taking pressure off our teachers.”
