Teenage teachers could be in the classroom soon

“Our doctors and nurses are in hospitals from their first semester...teaching should be no different."

“Our doctors and nurses are in hospitals from their first semester...teaching should be no different."

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.

At present, many students studying education don’t get to experience teaching in a classroom until the third or fourth years of their degrees.

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."

“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."

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.

Charlotte Plashik is studying to become a secondary English teacher and thinks the government’s announcement is a ‘benefit’ to university education students and as well as school aged students.

Ms Plashik, speaking to The Oz said she didn’t get to experience interacting with students in a classroom until the 4th year of her degree and said by then she was “Itching out of my skin to go into a classroom and see what it was actually like.”

“I learnt more in my first day than years of my education degree,” she said. “It’s not a testament to the quality of teaching at my university but just the practical nature of the job.”

“There’s something really profound about going into the classroom, it’s different to learn theory but another thing to apply that to children in classrooms. It’s important students get the chance to get in there and see the reality of teaching.”

“I know many friends who have dropped out after their first practical and in a way they thought they wasted 4 years of their degree.”

Eliot Metherell , another student studying to become a secondary teacher said he completed his first practical “back in 2nd year but even then I thought it was late…..far too late.”

“I think you should be getting uni students into a classroom as soon as possible because there is huge difference between the academic theory and day-to-day reality of teaching.”

“You don’t know if you’re cut out to be a teacher until you step into a classroom.”

Director of Education Policy at the Center of Independent Studies Glenn Fahey thinks the policy will “uniquely increase the supply of teachers and as well increasing the quality.”

Mr Fahey said research shows that “A student who completes an effective practical training are as effective as third year teachers by the time they graduate.”