Teachers query vow on quality

EDUCATION ministers have been accused of paying lip-service to teaching quality.

EDUCATION ministers have been accused of paying lip-service to teaching quality after insisting the word "resources" be removed from a charter emphasising the importance of continuing education for teachers in lifting the standard of the profession.

A meeting of federal, state and territory education ministers on Friday approved a framework for the annual review of teachers, and a companion document, a charter of professional learning.

The charter describes the importance and characteristics of high-quality professional learning for teachers and principals.

The original version of the charter said school systems and policymakers would "enable, support and resource a learning and development culture in schools".

The charter, developed by the Australian Institute of Teaching and Learning, also said a high-quality culture of professional learning was characterised by "support for professional learning through school structures, explicit planning and the allocation of time and resources".

But in the charter approved and released by ministers last week, the word "resources" is absent.

The removal of the term was instigated by NSW, which is understood to have objected to including "resources" for fear it provided room for the federal government and AITSL to direct how funds be spent, and that it could become part of industrial negotiations with unions.

The Australian College of Educators and the Australian Education Union said yesterday the action by ministers raised questions about the strength of their commitment to improving the profession.

ACE national president and education professor at the University of Queensland Bob Lingard said that without resources allocated to implement the charter, it was a type of "toothless tiger" and a "symbolic policy".

"Teacher quality is an easy thing for ministers to talk about because it makes it seem as if the responsibility lies somewhere else," he said.

AEU federal president Angelo Gavrielatos said it was a further example of governments "describing more things that should be done to teachers", rather than providing support for the profession to improve itself.

"This exposes that ministers are paying lip-service to the quality teaching debate," he said.

"Where are the resources necessary to provide teachers and school leaders with the time and space to engage in professional learning, the time and space to work together to evaluate and improve teaching and learning programs in the interest of improving student outcomes?"

But AITSL chief executive Margery Evans said the ministers were "strongly supportive" of the charter, and a commitment to resources was implied in the document.

"It's implied very directly in words like support and structures and time. It's not necessary to have resources in it," she said.

Australian Primary Principals Association president Norm Hart believed that ministers would provide the resources required.