University students to ease teacher shortage

Uni students would assist teachers in classrooms just six months into an education degree, under radical reforms to plug the national shortage of teachers.

Teachers should be given the same type of on-the-job professional training as doctors and nurses, NSW Education Minister Sarah Mitchell says. ​

University students would assist teachers in classrooms just six months into an education degree, under radical reforms to plug the national shortage of school teachers.

Federal, state and territory education ministers will consider the plan, to be hatched by the two biggest states of NSW and Victoria, at a meeting next month.

NSW Education Minister Sarah Mitchell said teachers should be given the same type of on-the-job professional training as doctors and nurses. “Our doctors and nurses are in hospitals from their first semester (at university) and for long periods of time,’’ she told The Australian.

“Teaching should be no different; we need universities to work with us to achieve that change.

“The current approach just isn’t working. We need to look at who we train, in what areas and, importantly, how we train them.

“It’s time for a national ­approach to the profession.’’

Ms Mitchell said she had met the vice-chancellors of the Australian Catholic University and the University of Sydney, and planned to meet other university chiefs, to discuss a shake-up of teaching degrees.

“They see the need and are eager to begin the work,’’ she said.

“Universities will play a huge role in this national approach.’’

Trainee teachers are already required to complete some practical training, but most do not step foot in a classroom until their final year at university.

The proposed reform would embed university students in classrooms just six months into their degree, to work as part-time “para-professional’’ teachers.

Ms Mitchell said NSW would hire 7400 new teachers this year, but still needed to find an extra 3800 teachers to fill shortages over the next five years.

Remote and rural schools are struggling to hire teachers, despite offering bonuses of up to $30,000.

Ms Mitchell said all education departments should try to recruit mid-career professionals, including lawyers, engineers and IT workers, to retrain as teachers.

“We should be targeting the almost half of all working Australians who are considering changing careers in the next 12 months,’’ she said.

Federal Education Minister Jason Clare hailed the planned shake-up of teacher training, and said the federal government was already fast-tracking visa appli­cations from foreign teachers.

“Our teachers are incredibly important, and we don’t have enough of them,’’ he said. “We’ve got a teacher shortage around the country at the moment.

“We don’t have enough young people making the decision to become a teacher when they leave school, and lots of teachers are leaving the profession burnt out.’’

Seven in 10 Australian teachers are at risk of burnout from heavy workloads, poor work-life balance and being strangled with red tape, data collected from more than 400 teachers and almost 2900 students reveals.

Analysis of data collected during the first two terms of 2022 by school wellbeing platform Tru­well found 72 per cent of teachers considered administrative tasks a burden.

Two-thirds of teachers said burnout was an issue.

Truwell director and co-founder Timothy Hawkes – a former headmaster of The King’s School in Sydney – said “a significant number of teachers are struggling and in need of help’’.

Victoria’s 2023-24 forward budget included $779m to recruit 1900 extra teachers to reduce face-to-face teaching hours and give teachers more time for planning, preparation and assessment. It will also spend $59m to fast-track career-changers into classrooms, campaigns to inspire future teachers, and cash to lure teachers to hard-to-staff positions in schools.

Victorian Education Minister Natalie Hutchins said she was looking forward to working with other states and territories “to encourage more people into teaching and grow our workforce of passionate, talented ­educators’’.

“We know school communities across Australia are facing teacher workforce supply challenges,’’ she said.

NSW Education Department documents show schools are trying to fill 3 per cent of teaching positions, with 1906 vacancies in May this year compared with 1144 last year.

The NSW Teachers Federation blames teacher shortages for a blowout in class sizes, with year 12 English classes at one Sydney high school combined for four days in a row with classes of up to 56 students in June.

In a country high school, the union claims, technology, maths and art classes were combined, with 70 students left in the library with minimal supervision.

The NSW government is at war with the union, which has staged full-day strikes to demand a wage rise of between 7.5 per cent and 10 per cent over the next two years. The government has offered a 6.5 per cent pay rise over two years.

Ms Mitchell said she was “committed to addressing both pay and workload this year’’.

“Unions also have a responsibility,’’ she said.

“They must be mindful of the reputational damage they are doing to the profession and the opportunity they have to be a part of the solution.”

NSW welcomed the first batch of 28 career-change teachers to its classrooms this week, including engineers, university lecturers and an aircraft maintenance manager, who will work as part-time “para-professional’’ teaching assistants while they complete a masters in education.

The NSW Education Department offers the career-changers a $30,000 training allowance, a guaranteed permanent teaching position plus an extra $30,000 study completion bonus phased over the first three years of employment in a NSW public school.

NSW is also offering a career change to tradies, who can retrain as technological and applied studies teachers while completing a bachelor’s degree in education.