‘Important’ teachers should be paid more, says Jason Clare

Education Minister says teachers should do less work for more pay, amid warnings that soaring housing costs are fuelling teacher shortages.

Federal Education Minister Jason Clare said his emergency workforce meeting would brainstorm ways to keep teachers in classrooms. Picture: Bronwyn Farr

Teachers should do less work for more pay, Federal Education ­Minister Jason Clare declared on Friday, as an education regulator warned soaring housing costs were fuelling teacher shortages.

“Everybody would agree we want teachers to be paid more money,’’ Mr Clare said. “There’s not a job I can think of that is more important than a teacher.’’

He said heavy workloads were causing teachers to quit, and promised that his emergency workforce meeting with state and territory ministers next month would brainstorm ways to keep teachers in classrooms.

“Let’s look at why teachers feel burnt-out and overloaded,’’ he said. “I’ve got a lot of mates who are teachers … money’s important but it’s not just the money.

“This idea that teachers just rock up at nine o’clock and finish at three and get all these holidays is not right. For most teachers, work starts long before nine and ends long after three. There’s a lot of work in lesson preparation, in organising excursions and sporting events and playground duty.’’

Mr Clare’s push for higher pay will stoke demands for hefty wage increases by striking teachers in NSW, after the Queensland government handed its teachers inflation-pegged pay rises ranging from 11 to 20 per cent over the next three years.

NSW is already paying bonuses worth up to $60,000 for teachers to work in remote schools, and $30,000 scholarships for professionals such as scientists and lawyers to switch careers and retrain as teachers.

The federally funded Australian Institute for Teaching and School Leadership will advise education departments to rehire retired teachers and live-stream specialist lessons to remote schools to help solve the nation’s teacher shortage.

AITSL chief executive Mark Grant said he was working with state governments to recruit more foreign teachers to work in schools with staff shortages, but warned that importing teachers was not a long-term solution.

Mr Grant said schools in wealthy suburbs, as well as regional and remote regions, were now having trouble finding permanent and casual staff during the Covid-19 pandemic, as rising rents and house prices pushed teachers out of the area.

“There are areas in NSW, including some of the (Sydney) north shore schools, where for the first time they are not able to get teachers,’’ he said.

“Some candidates say they couldn’t afford to live in those areas because of real estate prices.

“The rising real estate prices are difficult for teachers when salaries max out after 10 years.’’

Australian Secondary Principals’ Association president Andrew Pierpoint said some public schools in Queensland and Western Australia, where “independent public schools’’ can hire and fire teachers without going through the Education Department, were having trouble luring teachers to suburbs with expensive housing.

“It’s not only a Sydney-specific problem, it’s Australia-wide,’’ he said. “The wealthier suburbs in every capital city are suffering this problem and what’s making it worse is the shortage of teachers.’’

Australian Secondary Principals' Association president Andrew Pierpoint. Picture: Supplied

Mr Grant said one solution would be to lure retired teachers back into classrooms, although existing superannuation rules could be a barrier.

He said it was of concern that more than half the students who start a teaching degree at university drop out before graduating.

“They don’t finish – they either transfer to other courses or drop out altogether,’’ he said.

“The turnover factor in education is greater than our capacity to replace teachers, given the rise in student population.

“Many teachers are teaching out-of-field, such as English teachers teaching physics, and 46 per cent of maths teachers are not credentialed to teach maths.’’

Mr Grant said live-streamed lessons from teachers in city schools could be one solution to the shortage in regional regions.

He said the teacher shortage would get worse, with the number of students starting school forecast to soar by 21 per cent over the next eight years.