Government action needed to support beginning teachers

By Bob Lipscombe

The Australian Education Union reports 33 per cent of NSW beginning teachers participating in its annual national survey of 1300 beginning teachers (with three years or less experience) don't believe that they will be teaching in 10 years time.

With the NSW Department of Education and Training's (DET's) figures indicating that approximately 40 per cent of teachers will resign or retire between 2006 and 2011, there could be significant shortages in the not too distant future.

NSW beginning teachers surveyed listed workload (52 per cent), behaviour management (62 per cent), pay (51 per cent) and class sizes (59 per cent) as their top four concerns. Overall, the results of the survey strongly supported Federation's campaign for improvements for beginning teachers, including action from both state and federal governments to encourage new teachers to remain in the profession. Further, it justifies Federation's decision to make it one of the priority demands for the forthcoming state election.

Good support in their early years of teaching will have a great impact on retaining new teachers into the future.

Of vital importance to beginning teachers is a well targeted and properly funded induction program. In their first years of teaching, beginning teachers also need a reduced teaching load to ease them into the job, as is already commonplace in many NSW private schools and some public schools interstate. Tasmania, for example, already has a two hour reduction in the teaching load of beginning teachers in public schools, while in NSW the Catholic system is providing reductions ranging up to a day per week in many of its schools. In fact, in parts of NSW we now have DET beginning teachers with no reduction in teaching loads literally working across the street from beginning teachers in Catholic schools with a one-day per week reduction in teaching loads. Unfortunately, in the NSW public school system, one is expected to do exactly the same on the first day in a job as someone with years of experience.

Beginning teachers require and benefit greatly from support and mentoring by experienced teachers. In NSW approximately 2000 new permanent teachers and more than 1000 temporary and casual teachers enter the workforce each year, yet there are only 50 equivalent full time teacher mentors. Although the teacher mentor program commenced in 2003, following representations by the Federation and others, the State Government has declined to expand the numbers of full time teacher mentors to the approximately 300 needed to support all beginning teachers. In doing so, the Government has ignored an evaluation by DET's Strategic Research Directorate, in conjunction with an independent academic, Professor Christine Deer, and other evidence which demonstrates just how successful it has been in those schools where it has operated. With mentors with release time becoming more commonplace in Catholic schools, the State Government has allowed the public school system to lag further behind the private system.

The NSW Government should not continue to lag behind private schools in the support provided to beginning teachers in public schools. Such support is needed to maintain quality outcomes in our classrooms.

Bob Lipscombe is the Senior Vice President.

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Last Modified: 08 Feb 2007