Queensland schoolteachers say poor behaviour is occupying too much of their time
Queensland state schoolteachers say poor student behaviour - is occupying too much of their time in the classroom. A survey has revealed that in addition to dealing with verbal and physical abuse, many are buckling under excessive reporting requirements.
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00:00Educating the next generation has been this teacher's passion for more than a decade,
00:07but it has become a challenging profession.
00:10I have been hit, I have been kicked, I have had a child bite my arm,
00:16spat out, swearing, you name it, it's happened.
00:20She says the abuse is now routine.
00:23You become somewhat immune or you actually build that thick skin
00:27so that you can show up to work and I think that's appalling.
00:30No one should ever have to develop that skin.
00:32According to a survey of 15,000 state school teachers and principals,
00:37the problem is widespread.
00:39If the average person knew what kinds of physical and verbal abuse
00:46teachers put up with every single day, they would actually fall off their chair.
00:51And dealing with these issues adds to an already heavy workload.
00:5650% say managing student behaviour is the main task taking them away from teaching,
01:01followed by responding to parents, data collection, meetings and curriculum tasks.
01:07The results from the survey don't come as a surprise to the QTU.
01:10One of the main problems is that teachers are required to report
01:13even minor behavioural incidents like not wearing a hat in the department system
01:18and writing each report can take up to 15 minutes.
01:22There are 1.6 million recordings of minor offences.
01:28We actually need to rethink whether we need to record those offences or not.
01:33The state government wants to focus on parent behaviour too.
01:37I have received very threatening emails from a parent in the past.
01:42The state government is now developing a strategy to ease the pressure points
01:46and keep dedicated teachers in classrooms.
01:49These sorts of behaviours are not always happening in schools.
01:53It is the most rewarding job and I would encourage people to do it.