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Media Release
AUSTRALIA’S TEACHERS: AUSTRALIA’S FUTURE
9 October, 2003 MIN 475/03
Today I received the final report I commissioned in August 2002 to examine the state of the teaching workforce in Australia.
The three volume work Australia’s Teachers: Australia’s Future – Advancing Innovation, Science, Technology and Mathematics provides a stark picture of the state of Australia’s teaching profession if action is not taken to address the issues of a rapidly ageing and departing workforce.
There are 250,000 teachers in Australian schools.
According to the report, our universities are graduating more teachers than ever before. After a decrease in the early nineties, numbers enrolling in teaching courses have been surging since 1995.
There are three times as many starting now as there were 9 years ago – last year alone almost 21,000 students commenced teacher training courses. The Department of Education, Science and Training estimates that over the next five years 70,000 students will graduate as qualified teachers.
However this good news is undermined by the vast number of teachers choosing not to teach, choosing to work overseas or to depart the profession – many within just a few years.
Most disturbingly, the report found that only 60% of graduates who have been trained as teachers are actually working in schools the year after they graduate! (p.51, Background Data and Analysis)
Although the report finds that teacher supply and demand is broadly in balance across the nation this year (with shortages only in some specialist subjects and remote areas), it estimates that there could be an overall shortage of up to 30,000 teachers by the end of the decade if the high rate of teacher resignations and retirements continues unchecked.
“It will not be enough to maintain a supply – essential as that is with the coming age-related tide of retirements. An equally crucial factor in workforce planning for the future will be to retain and support as many quality teachers currently employed as possible, particularly those in the early years of their careers.” ( p.65, Main Report)
“In both government and non-government sectors more teachers resigned than retired from service during 2001.” (pg 87, Main Report)
“An important issue arising from the MCEETYA study was the number of teachers leaving the profession after less than five years working as a teacher. This is possibly as high as 25 % within the first five years of teaching.”(p.87, Main Report)
The report found that there are an estimated 117,000 qualified teachers who had given up on teaching and are working in other occupations. (p.17, Agenda for Action)
In addition, education authorities have estimated that in the last 7 years more than 31,000 qualified Australian teachers left to work overseas.
A recent analysis by the Department of Education, Science and Training found that if the average time a teacher remained in the profession was increased by just one year, teacher numbers would be immediately boosted by 14,700.
In a survey conducted for the Ministerial Council on Employment, Education, Training and Youth Affairs (MCEETYA) teachers nominated the following factors which were driving them out of the profession:
- Poor remuneration
- Poor resources/heavy workloads
- Lack of professional standing in the community
- Large class sizes
- Poor student behaviour
I will consider the report and its recommendations in detail and have today sent a copy to every State and Territory Education Minister for their consideration.
However the Australian Government has already acted in areas for which it has responsibility.
The Higher Education reform package, Our Universities:Backing Australia’s Future, has earmarked almost 2,000 places in teaching and nursing and a further 4,250 growth places by 2008.
In addition, the package includes the conversion of 25,000 marginally funded university places into fully funded ones.
In addition teaching and nursing have been quarantined from any increase in HECS charges – a provision which covers around 14% of university students.
“The Australian Government’s identification of teaching as one of two national higher education priorities, to which it proposes to apply a lower rate of HECS, is a significant initiative.” (pg.20, Agenda for Action)
The Higher Education reform package also includes an additional $81.4 million to support universities with the costs associated with the practical component of teaching.
The Howard Government’s 2001 innovation statement Backing Australia’s Ability has already committed 5,500 university places in mathematics, science and ICT, with many of these specifically targeted to teacher education.
The Report also welcomes the Government’s recently announced National Institute for Quality Teaching and School Leadership which will be a key body to enhance the quality and status of the profession.
“The National Institute is a tangible measure of recognition that teaching is a national profession .... It should play a central role in developing a coordinated and collaborative national framework for the advancement of the teaching profession”(p116, Main Report).
The Report also noted the importance of the Commonwealth’s $159m Quality Teacher Program (QTP) which provides professional learning for teachers calling it a “significant measure to date”.
The Report notes that:
“QTP’s success in generating a continuing momentum of professional development in science, mathematics and technology education in schools will be a most important factor in translating the needs identified in this Review into effective and enduring development strategies nationwide.”(p. 159 Main Report)
I congratulate and thank Professor Kwong Lee Dow and all involved with the Review.
Background
The Review of Teaching and Teacher Education was an initiative under the Australian Government’s $3 billion innovation statement Backing Australia’s Ability which was launched by the Prime Minister in 2001.
An independent Committee, drawn from school, university and industry sectors, was established on 8 August 2002, to oversee the Review. A broad-based Reference Group — deans of education and science, teacher professional associations of science, technology and mathematics, business organisations, parents’ groups, principals, teachers’ unions, teacher education bodies, educational organisations and others—was established to assist the Review Committee.
The Review Committee released two Discussion Papers, Strategies to Attract and Retain Teachers of Science, Technology and Mathematics on 5 September 2002, and Young People, Schools and Innovation: towards an action plan for the school sector on 21 March 2003. Over 240 submissions were received in response to the discussion papers and these submissions informed the final report.
The Committee’s final report is presented in three volumes: an Agenda for Action, a Main Report and Background Data and Analysis. The Agenda for Action presents the Review Committee’s main findings and conclusions and a range of actions the Committee believes need to be taken. The Main Report presents the reasoning and argument based on evidence from a wide variety of sources that underpin the Agenda for Action; and the Background Data and Analysis presents much of the data supporting the views formed during the course of the Review.
The report and listing of the Review Committee and Reference Group can be found at: www.dest.gov.au/schools/teachingreview
Media Contacts:
Dr Nelson’s Office: Ross Hampton 0419 484 095
Dept of Education, Science & Training: Monique Gonczarek 0412 738 087
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