NSW teacher crisis: call to reduce Graduate Diploma in Education to one year

A simple tweak to education degrees could dramatically increase the number of teachers across the state, a new report has found.

The crippling teacher shortage in NSW schools could be curtailed by a simple tweak to the length of postgraduate teaching degrees, a new study claims.

Would-be teachers with existing qualifications in science, mathematics and engineering currently need to spend thousands of dollars and take two years out of their professional lives to switch careers, despite nearly a third of all Australian high school teachers holding a one-year degree.

Reducing the training time for postgraduate teachers back to one-year would help increase the supply of highly qualified teachers, the report by the Centre for Independent Studies said.

Centre for Independent Studies program director Glenn Fahey.

There is “no evidence” the 29 per cent of secondary teachers who hold the old one-year Graduate Diploma in Education provide lower quality education than their more recently graduated peers, making the new two-year requirement an unnecessary disincentive.

“Additionally, postgraduate completion rates have substantially declined since the removal of one-year programs,” the report states.

Centre for Independent Studies education program director Glenn Fahey said schools with urgent staffing needs – including those in regional and rural areas, and schools with subject-specific teacher shortages – would benefit most from the reversal.

“We know there’s already a significant pool of people who do want to become teachers. In the current climate it makes little sense that we maintain the obstacles for people to meet that need.”

Shadow Education minister Alan Tudge backed the report’s findings, which mirror the findings of a review he initiated while in government.

“The standard two-year Masters … costs the student more, and becomes an impediment for mid-career professionals to switch to teaching.

“Understandably, not many professionals can afford to take two years off work mid-career to re-train as a teacher.

“Shorter pathways are required if we are to make this an attractive choice for the best and the brightest.”