By Noel Towell
The teachers’ union is pushing the state government to trial a four-day working week for teachers and other staff at public schools, as part of a wider plan to tackle Victoria’s chronic school workforce shortage.
The Australian Education Union has endorsed sweeping classroom reforms developed by a team of Monash University academics, who surveyed more than 8000 public school teachers, principals and support staff.
Most teachers surveyed said a four-day working week “would support them to better deliver high-quality education”.
The researchers found more funding for schools, better pay for educators, smaller class sizes, curriculum reform and upgrades to the state’s ageing school buildings were needed.
They also said the working conditions of the state’s 52,000 government school teachers needed to be modernised – and a four-day working week should be tried.
The team, led by Professor Fiona Longmuir, found over-work and burnout were key factors leading to most teachers wanting to leave the profession.
Nearly two-thirds of the teachers surveyed said a four-day working week “would support them to better deliver high-quality education”.
But many expressed caution over how the change might be implemented. There were strong reservations about a four-day learning week for students and the difficulty of timetabling a shorter school week.
Longmuir pointed to widespread trials of four-day school weeks in the US, which had shown a reduction in bullying and fighting among students, but there was no conclusive evidence that the arrangement improved teacher retention.
Still, the idea has been gathering momentum in academic circles, with one expert telling this masthead last year that teachers could be given a four-day working week with creative timetabling of non-academic subjects, as was done in Singapore.
Teachers aides could also be trained to help with marking and other administrative tasks.
Longmuir is calling for bold reform, arguing the supports available to teachers had not kept pace with the demands of the modern classroom.
“This is becoming a source of workload stress, exacerbating existing stress and burnout,” she said.
“The expectations and excessive workloads...are unsustainable and need to be curtailed.
“Until these workload issues and expectations are addressed, retaining school staff and attracting new staff will remain a chronic and dire problem.”
Education Minister Ben Carroll referred questions to his department, which did not respond before deadline on Thursday.
Meredith Peace, the union’s Victorian branch president, pointed to sweeping changes in schooling in the past 30 years, such as digital technologies, social and political transformations and greater understanding of disability and neurodiversity.
“But we have not changed the structure of our school system, making the job of providing quality public education more challenging than ever before, while underfunding and staff shortages are pushing the limits of the system,” Peace said.
Parents Victoria chief executive Gail McHardy said her group would be open to exploring the idea of a four-day week.
“Parents Victoria would support the option to be explored in order to assist and address the ongoing retention and attraction of the school staff workforce to Victorian government schools,” she said.
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