Teachers deserve the ‘highest training, support and respect’

Teachers are the centre of our education system yet they are leaving the industry in droves. Here’s what you can do.

Australia must get behind its teachers and make known their invaluable place in our education system if we are to be successful in saving the sector from its current “crisis”, according to experts.

Among 27 proposals in the federal government’s $328m national strategy to address the national teacher shortage, Education Minister Jason Clare dedicated $10m to “help raise the status and value of the role of teachers”.

“Teachers changed my life,” Mr Clare said.

“I’m a kid from Cabramatta, whose mum didn’t go to high school and dad finished in Year 9.

“There was no one to tell me what I could do after high school. My teachers told me that, they didn’t just teach me how to read and write, they taught me what’s possible.”

Federal Education Minister Jason Clare with his old teacher Cathy Fry in a year 2 classroom at Cabramatta Public School in western Sydney. Picture: John Feder/The Australian.

He said the national campaign, part of the National Teacher Workforce Action Plan, would kick off in the second half of this year.

“We’re going to develop it with teachers to help to shine a light on the important work that they do and hopefully encourage more people to become one,” Mr Clare said.

“The most powerful cause for good in this country is education and the most important part of that is the teacher at the front of the classroom.

“A lot of people want to do something with their life that changes the lives of others, that helps other people, well, this is it.

“I want more young people to burst out of high school and want to become a teacher rather than a lawyer or a banker.”

Mr Clare commended News Corp’s Australia’s Best Teachers series, launched Sunday, for elevating the profession.

“There aren’t many professions more important than teaching,” he said.

“You’re celebrating teachers and the work they do – that is hugely significant.”

It comes after a recent national study by Monash University found 70 per cent of teachers did not feel respected by the Australian public.

“Think about when you were a little kid, hard to remember much, but you remember the names of your teachers,” Mr Clare said.

“That gives you an insight into the impact that they have on our lives. It’s one of the reasons why the first thing I did when I got this job was go back to Cabramatta Public School and give Mrs Fry a hug, to say ‘thank you’.

“It just seemed like the right place to start. And she’s been there now for 40 years since 1978. Changing the lives of thousands and thousands of children. There aren’t many jobs where you get to do that.”

Mr Claire praised News Corp’s Australia’s Best Teachers series, launched today, and said celebrating the work teachers do was “hugely significant”.

Professor Carolyn Evans is the Griffith University vice chancellor. The university’s School of Education and Professional Studies is ranked number one in Queensland for teacher education. Picture: Supplied

Griffith University vice chancellor Professor Carolyn Evans said research consistently showed a positive relationship between teacher status and elevated student academic performance in national and international assessments.

“It is critical we shift the public perception of teaching to a high-grade status profession,” Prof Evans said.

“Increasing the status of teaching as a profession has a ripple effect, ensuring a wider pool of quality candidates apply for teaching and stay to enjoy the benefits of the profession in and out of the classroom.

“Flexible employment options, ongoing professional training and diversity of career placements are the main reasons they choose to stay in teaching.”

Joe Hildebrand touts teachers as ‘the absolute centre of the education system’. Picture: Nikki Short

Journalist and broadcaster Joe Hildebrand said he was “horrified” to learn how many teachers believed the public didn’t respect them while researching for News Corp’s Best in Class campaign.

“I came from a poor background but I went to a state primary school and state high school and was then able to get into one of the best universities in the country,” Mr Hildebrand said.

“This is a great system but it is struggling at the moment and we desperately need to save it or our country will suffer and millions of kids won’t reach their full potential.”

He said teachers were “the absolute centre of the education system”.

“This sounds like an obvious statement but it’s something we often forget or fail to appreciate,” Mr Hildebrand said.

“Without passionate and dedicated teachers equipped with the latest evidence on learning there is no education system. We need to make sure they have the highest training, the highest support and the highest respect.

“I have no doubt that the vast majority of Australians have enormous respect for teachers and it is catastrophic that teachers themselves do not realise this. And it is catastrophic because without teachers we are all doomed.”