Anthony Albanese champions his own primary school teachers as part of $10m recruitment campaign

Education union says 90 per cent of public school principals reported teacher shortages this year – double the number in 2020 – as Prime Minister Anthony Albanese launches multi-million dollar advertising campaign for teaching scholarships.

Anthony Albanese visits Kirrawee High School in Sydney’s south.

Anthony Albanese paid tribute to his own school teachers for building his confidence and leadership skills during the launch of a $10m advertising blitz to recruit more teachers.

“We need more teachers and we need to celebrate and value the profession of teaching,’’ the Prime Minister said.

He singled out his Year 5 teacher, Brother Simpson, who made him captain of the rugby league team at St Mary’s Cathedral College in Sydney, from which he graduated in 1984.

“I wasn’t the best player on the team, but he made me captain, so he saw some leadership qualities in me at a young age,’’ he said.

Mr Albanese said his economics teacher, Paul Cheney, had inspired him to study economics at university and “made a big difference to my life’’.

But Mr Albanese hosed down expectations of higher wages for teachers, whose salaries range from between $75,000 and $140,000 a year depending on experience and location.

“The truth is that this campaign is never going to aim at teachers being paid as much as engineers or doctors,’’ he said.

“If you look at a fulfilling life that you have, where you’re making a difference, that’s part of the equation as well.

‘’Yes it’s always a part of people need to pay their bills, but it’s not just about that.’’

Education Minister Jason Clare said that teaching was “the most important job in the world’’.

He said the pay rise to NSW teachers – including a $10,000 increase for new graduates to $85,000 – was “a great thing that we’d like to see emulated across the country’’.

“We’ve got to do something about workload too ... the idea that teachers start at 9 and finish at 3 is wrong,’’ he said.

“It’s our teachers who inspire our children to aim higher, to work harder, to be braver, to be kinder, and to believe in themselves. We don’t have enough of them. There are lots of reasons for that – part of it’s pay, part of it’s workload, part of it is respect. I want to change the way that Australia views our teachers.’’

NSW Education Minister Prue Car, who has just handed teachers their biggest pay rise in a generation, lauded the “noble profession’’.

“Teachers are expert professionals, and they deserve to be paid as expert professionals,’’ she said. “They feel chronically undervalued even though they are both the most important profession in society, hands down.’’

The ministers launched an advertising campaign featuring eight teachers talking about the rewards of their job and showing mementos and thank-you notes from students.

Victorian maths teacher Dennis Wang said he loved his job and expected to work in the profession for 40 years.

Teacher Sam Davies added: “I get thanked every single day by my students, quite often by parents as well – the people who know what difference we make.’’

The federal government soon will open applications for 5000 scholarships, worth $40,000, for school-leavers to study a four-year teaching degree.

Australian Education Union president Correna Haythorpe said teachers were being “asked to do too much with too little’’ and demanded federal and state governments plug the gap in funding of public schools.

She said 90 per cent of public school principals had reported teacher shortages this year – double the number in 2020.

The campaign comes as unions and employers negotiate a pay rise of between 15 and 25 per cent for daycare staff. United Workers’ Union executive director of early education Helen Gibbons said taxpayers should fund the pay rise when the federal government joins the talks.