Do we pay school teachers enough?

By his own admission, TV host David Campbell wasn’t the best student. But he says he got through it thanks to “public high-school teachers” and is now calling for them to be better paid.

David Campbell: “The future of our country is at stake and, like any business, we need to give people incentives to want to do this.” (Pic: iStock)

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I am a public-school system kid. I wish I could tell you that I am a success story, going on to get a university degree and using that to spring into my life and career with a great start.

Truth be told, I wasn’t that great. Maybe I had spark, but by Year 10 and 11 in the northern suburbs of Adelaide, I was losing interest and my average grade was spiralling from straight Bs to Cs and Ds.

In fact, I repeated Year 12 to get better grades because I was far too busy trying to be liked by everyone to ever apply myself. Not much has changed, really.

You know how I got through it? Public high-school teachers. Educators who saw that spark and tried to stimulate my hormone and junk-food riddled brain to fire up and be inspired.

This wasn’t Dead Poets Society. We were mainly bogans wearing a semblance of a school uniform and sporting matching mullets.

Although there’s nothing wrong with Dead Poets Society.

“I repeated Year 12 to get better grades because I was far too busy trying to be liked by everyone to ever apply myself. Not much has changed, really.”

I remember the tireless efforts from my English teacher, Ms Bristow, my classical Greek teacher, Ms Humphries, and the head of music, Mr Rodgers.

Reaching out to me and others to read out loud. To choose novels that woke parts of our imaginations from their dormant slumber. To allow me and others to practice in the music rooms and be in choirs, even though we never studied music.

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If it wasn’t for them, I simply don’t know where I would be now.

Yet there are some facts you may not know. Between 2016 to 2017, in some Australian universities there was a 40 per cent decline in people applying for teaching degrees. The Victorian Tertiary Admissions Centre reported a 40 per cent drop and the University of Queensland experienced a plummet of 44 per cent.

Why? We don’t pay them enough. The starting salary is $67,000. Yet we expect so much back in return.

David Campbell’s column is in Sunday’s Stellar.

I know it’s a noble profession, but this is ridiculous. The future of our country is at stake and, like any business, we need to give people incentives to want to do this.

We need to have the best graduates go back and educate, not just for the star pupils, but those kids the system needs to help. The ones that are up the back, trying to not have to answer a question. The ones who just need the right person to say, “I believe you can do this.”

They can alter someone’s destiny. Change the course of a child’s life.

Instead of complaining about them, we should thank them more often.

David co-hosts Today Extra, 9am weekdays, on the Nine Network.

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