Teachers cite violent, abusive behaviour among growing list of things making their jobs harder
The OECD says Australian teachers work longer hours and receive less competitive salaries compared to other similarly educated professions, which is contributing to a nationwide teacher shortage.
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00:00Well, it certainly reflects the stories that we hear from our membership across the country.
00:08Unsustainable workloads are a significant problem. It's pretty common for people to
00:12be working on average about a 50-hour week, which means in excess of 12 hours of unpaid
00:19work every week. And, of course, we do know about the chronic staff shortages, particularly
00:25teacher shortages that we have across our system, which are, of course, exacerbating
00:31the workloads and the challenges we confront in classrooms every day.
00:34The OECD report also says that the disciplinary climate in Australian schools is among the
00:40worst in its group of countries. Are teachers, your members, telling you that student behaviour
00:46is getting worse?
00:47Yeah, there are certainly concerns being raised with us about student behaviour, but I think
00:53we need to have a broader discussion than that, because when you starve a school system
00:58of the resources that are required, as we've seen in Australia over the last decade, of
01:04course that plays out in the classroom. And, you know, these are kids we're talking about
01:09who need extra support with their learning, with their mental health, with behavioural
01:16challenges. And that requires our schools, our public schools, to be resourced to the
01:20level that the federal government has set more than a decade ago, and which they continue
01:25to fail to address. Only 1.3 per cent of public schools in Australia right now are funded
01:32to that standard. And that means our schools, our teachers, our principals and support staff
01:37don't have the resources they need to respond to the very diverse and complex needs of our
01:43students.
01:44And are people leaving the profession because of the stresses?
01:48They certainly are. Workload is the most significant reason cited by our membership. But of course
01:54other issues about lack of respect for the profession, salaries that don't value the
01:58important work that they do for our community, are all issues which are driving people out
02:04of the profession. And governments, again, have focused very much on attracting new people
02:09into the profession. What they've failed to do is address the critical issues which are
02:13driving the existing workforce away, and will in fact drive our future members of the
02:19profession away as well. So we need to see public schools fully and fairly funded by
02:25the federal government and by state and territory governments around the country to ensure
02:30that staff in our schools have the resources needed to address the critical and important
02:35needs of our students.
02:37Merida, through our painting, a bad picture of being a teacher, aren't we? Why do people
02:41sign up to do the job in the first place?
02:46Teachers are very committed to the important work they do. It is a very enjoyable
02:51profession where you get to work with young people and children every day and to make a
02:56real difference to their lives. And people continue, despite the real challenges they
03:01face in doing this work, to want to make a difference for the kids they have in their
03:05classrooms. And unfortunately, our governments aren't meeting the needs of our staff or
03:10the children in our schools to be able to deliver that high quality education and
03:15support that is so clearly needed by our system.
03:19And we really need the federal government in particular to step up in the current funding
03:24negotiations and ensure that they follow through on the promise that they made prior to
03:29the last election to see public schools fully and fairly funded.
03:33Schools need the resources to meet the needs of their kids and to support the staff in
03:38doing the work that they're doing.
03:41Our members are stepping up.
03:42They're deeply committed.
03:43We need governments to do the same.