WHAT YOU SAID: Qld teaching crisis looms amid fight for pay, conditions

Queensland teachers say the profession is in crisis as they continue a fight for better pay and conditions. HAVE YOUR SAY

Teachers are leaving the profession in droves, citing poor pay and conditions.

Queensland teachers say the profession is in crisis as they continue a fight for better pay and conditions.

So many teachers are leaving, or planning to jump, from their jobs, that schools are advertising scores of position.

One southeast Queensland school has advertised 12 positions at once.

Teachers Professional Association Queensland President Scott Stanford said teachers were constantly being asked to perform tasks outside their primary classroom duty.

Teacher Damion Douglass has written to Premier David Crisafulli, saying he could barely afford to pay his bills, despite giving the Education Department hours of his own time.

“We can’t be accepting this anymore, we simply can’t.”

The Queensland Teachers’ Union has rejected a state government pay offer of 3 per cent for the next financial year, followed by a 2.5 per cent per year for the next two years.

The story has prompted hundreds of comments from readers, including from current and former teachers.

See what you had to say below and join the conversation >>>

WHAT YOU SAID

Students aren’t what they used to be

“I left after teaching for 39 years. It was not an issue of pay. The terrible behaviour, lack of consequences and no support from the administration were the main issues for me. I worked long hours. I enjoyed the planning and lesson preparation, didn’t mind the incessant marking and data collection. A lot of the kids were wonderful. But, in Year 7 and 8 classes of 31 with over half having major behavioural issues, another 8 with high learning needs, (no teacher aide either) and only 6 students who were cooperative and actually wanted to learn, the burnout and disillusionment led to me being unable to continue in the profession.”

– Glenn

“As a teacher of 25 years I am at a point where I am about to jump. Students are out of control and we have zero power in the classroom. When an incident occurs there is rarely a consequence or support from those higher up. I used to love my job, that love is waning at a rapid rate.”

– Ashley

“How about bringing back some form of punishment into schools – kids are unruly and know they can’t be disciplined And – just go back to teaching the BASICs !!!”

– Ted

Poor student behaviour and their parents may be part of the problem for teachers.

“Every school is different. Teaching at some is okay. Sadly others have huge behaviour issues. Students use language teachers haven’t heard before. Then the parents are called and you know where the kids heard it. Teachers are physically attacked. Some students are so mentally low they are in Grade 3 but have a prep standard of ability.”

– 19575

“The biggest problem facing teachers is having children with special needs, placed in mainstream classes and not being given the additional support they need to manage these children. This then leads to an entire class being constantly disrupted, not conducive to good teaching.”

– Boswoz

No time to just be a teacher

“As an ex-principal for many years I can vouch for the fact that I never once met a teacher that consistently worked 16 hour days … That’s not to say they don’t work hard because most do. The issues that burn out teachers are very similar to the ones that burn out principals. A massive increase in administration tasks, especially over the last 10 years, poor discipline from students and parents, and constantly changing ‘priorities’. A pay increase won’t change any of that.”

– Groucho

“Teachers have been dumped with a huge amount of paperwork dreamed up by the bureaucracy. I left high school teaching and swapped to adult education … 50% of new teachers leave the job within 5 years. About 1/3 are on medication for stress … Now, complex and tedious assessment processes that take up huge amounts of the teachers’ time.”

– Perpetpend

“It is all the admin work that kills you. I was a teacher for 10 years before I decided it made me too unhappy. As others have commented, 50% of new teachers quit within 5 years.”

– Ryan

“The government could start doing this – drastically cut the bureaucracy starting at the top, make all teachers working in central and regional offices maintain education experience by spending a certain amount of time teaching in schools, simplify the curriculum, cut the excessive crap that central office generates and sends out to schools.”

— Mr & Mrs

‘I didn’t even have time to go to the toilet’

“One year when I was teaching, my husband recorded the hours I worked, both at school and at home, for the entire year. He worked out that I barely had two weeks of time to myself, let alone the oodles of holidays that teachers apparently enjoy. My weekends were tied up with extra curricular activities, lunchtimes were busy with yard duty or meeting students, and I often didn’t have time to go to the toilet during the day. I rarely took a sickie because it created more work than it was worth.”

– Rhubarb

Teachers say they are expected to do much more than their classroom duties.

“Absolutely no teacher comes in at 9am and leaves at 3pm. If you see someone who does, you can be assured that they will be working at night. Behaviour issues and cumbersome ideas which come from a bureaucracy who only taught for a couple of years a decade or more ago, are the main issues.”

– Christine

“I didn’t realise how much time teachers gave without pay until I started talking to them in my line of work. They come to me stressed out … There is always lesson prep for the next day or week, there is marking, assessments and parent teacher interviews. They get half the school holidays because they’re prepping for next term. They pay for supplies out of their own pockets.”

– Diahann

Money may not be the solution

“Teacher salaries start at $84,078. A senior teacher starts at $116,729 through to a lead teacher on $142,766. Discipline in schools appears to be a major problem as is the curriculum and these can’t be fixed through more money.”

– Frank

“My equivalent number of years as a teacher and in the same teaching position, today I would be paid $30,000 more in NSW. Yes housing is a bit more expensive there but that’s a big difference. They keep contacting me to return.”

– AJ

“The Australian average wage is close to $100,000 a year. Teachers with 5+ years experience are on close to $110,000+ per year. Forget whether they should get paid more, why can’t someone on more than the average wage afford electricity? Something doesn’t add up.”

– Just me

“Higher pay does not stop burnout from being overworked, getting more staff to help ease the load does. And it isn’t just teachers struggling to pay electricity bills- everyone is. I thought they would know there is still a cost of living crisis going on in the country that started a few years ago.”

– AlliJ

More than a little bit of politics involved

“Where the hell have the QTU been while successive ALP Governments have sat there and watched this disaster unfold? Suddenly they’ve found a voice. This has unfolded over the last 35 years as schools have been turned into places where childrens and parents rights have taken over and teachers needs have been neglected. Successive incompetent ALP Education Ministers have done nothing and now everyone is expecting the LNP to fix it immediately.”

– DES

“Funny how the Labor controlled Teachers Unions sat on their hands for the last 10 years under the Labor government. Typical union tactics trying to blame the LNP for Labor’s failures.”

– Undertaker

“The QTU has fought for $ instead of priorities over the last many years. The conditions have stagnated or become worse due to this. This is not an issue caused by the current government, this is a lack of attention and concern by the unions and Labor government for over 10 years which the LNP again have to step in and fix.”

– Lisa

It’s time to get back to the basics

“The simplest solution is to return to teaching ‘reading writing and arithmetic’. Much of the syllabus today is too politically correct and wasted on subjects that won’t advance a student’s learning very much at all. It is time to return to basics for students and teachers.”

— Katherine

“Labor created the nightmares for teachers with their WOKE Agendas resulting curriculums that have no relevance and discipline without real consequences.”

— Dave

“Perhaps if teachers and their curriculum designers hadn’t been so intent on teaching kids their rights instead of responsibilities; white guilt instead of harmony; wokeism instead of community betterment … then they might find the fantastic rewards from teaching that their predecessors in the industry found.”

— John

Time teachers received some back-up

“There would be so many people happy to work as Teacher’s Aide’s doing admin work for the teachers.”

— Jill

“Look at the staffing model in schools – give more pay to support staff, teacher aides to support teachers in the classroom. Drop the number of administrators in schools – or give them a class to teach – schools are top heavy doing mundane and irrelevant data collection to appease the Regional Officers.”

— Sue

“How about putting all the hundreds of so called consultants in schools back in the classroom. From my experience, they flow into the schools they are based at at 9am, go straight to their offices with coffee, and settle down for meetings to tell teachers how to teach, useless. As I have observed, those who can’t teach, CONSULT!”

— Josephine

‘No amount of money would get me back’

“I am in my 33rd year of teaching and my last. Would have been longer except I have had a few years off inserted in there to serve on active deployments as a reservist. I invested over $30k to be retrained as an accountant … Students today generally are not well fed and certainly at the current school I work at, we feed them. We provide uniforms. Parents pay lip service to school rules. They themselves are not functioning well and thus neither are their children.”

— Always Pending

“I’m a qualified teacher. I could be stepping in to fill one of these vacancies. Instead, I work as a Teacher Aide in the private system. No amount of money would take me back to teaching, particularly not in a state school. The admin, the parents, the behaviour issues the wildly varying learning abilities within each packed classroom. Nope, I’ll remain over qualified for my role and underpaid for what I achieve with my students.”

— Rhubarb

“Management of the department is a major issue. Too many people with woke agendas are interfering in the system and pushing people away from the job. Had three male relatives leave state system in the last two years. Sick to death of the BS management.”

– Susan

Cost-of-living an issue for everyone

“This issue is real and not confined to the teaching profession. Police, paramedics, health workers are no longer paid appropriately in relation to cost of living increases. The people who do these jobs cannot afford to live where the jobs are.”

– Robert

“Same situation as nurses. Under paid, under valued, concerns dismissed. They vote with their feet & it will happen more often. The government needs to listen to staff on the floor not the administration.”

– Zee

“Every workplace across Australia is struggling to find staff. Simples”

– Deanne

Teachers just need to do more work

“12 weeks leave fully paid each year, Super in excess of the 12% the rest of use receive, 6-7 contact hours per day. Quit complaining.”

– Reginald Fourplong

“Teachers are well paid. They just expect more and have no real life experience. After 5 years, they earn over $70000+. Yes after 10 years, close to $100000 … They are just too entitled and run by a strong union.”

– John

“Schools open for 6 hours per day, how on earth is he working 16 hours per day?”

– Matthew

“If they want to be treated like professionals, turn up to work looking like one and make do with four weeks of recreational leave a year, rather than 10. Supervise kids during the six week reduction in your leave so parents can work.”

– Keeping the Whigs Honest

Originally published as WHAT YOU SAID: Qld teaching crisis looms amid fight for pay, conditions